>>^- 


IN  THE  SCHOOL  OF  CHRIST 


■^v 


THE  COLE  LECTURES 


jgio 


Juit  Published 


In  the  School  of  Christ 

By  Bishop  William  Fraser  McDowell. 
Cloth.  -  _  -  net  1.25 

JQOQ  J"''  Published 

Jesus  the  Worker 

By  Charles  McTyeire  Bishop,  D.  D. 
Cloth.  -  .  .  net  1.25 

IQO8 

The  Fact  of  Conversion 

By  George  Jackson,  B.A. 

Cloth,  _  -  .  net  1.25 

IQO7 

God's  Message  to  the 
Human  Soul 

By  John  Watson  (Ian  Maclaren).  T/ie 
Cole  Lectures, firePared  but  not  delivered 
Cloth,  -  _  .  net  1.25 

i()o6 
Christ  and  Science 

By   Francis    Henry    Smith,   University   of 

Virginia. 

Cloth,  -  _  .  net  1.25 

IQO5 

The  Universal  Elements 
of  the  Christian  Religion 

By  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall. 

Cloth.  -  .  -  net  1.25 

1903 

The  Religion  of  the 
Incarnation 

By  Bishop  Eugene  Russell  Hendrix. 
Cloth,  -  -  -  net  1.00 


The     Cole    Lectures    for    igio 
delivered  before  Vanderbilt  University 


V 


A\f 


Of  Piii/^i 


FEB  ^,2  1915 


hf. 


In  The  School  of  Christ 


By    ^ 
WILLIAM  ERASER  McDOWELL 

one  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church 


New  York       Chicago       Toronto 
Fleming   H.   Revell   Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1910,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:       100    Princes    Street 


To  my  Wife 

and  the  dear  memory 

of  our  Daughter 


THE  COLE  LECTURES 

THE  late  Colonel  E.  \V.  Cole  of  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, donated  to  Vanderbilt  University  the  sum 
of  five  thousand  dollars,  afterwards  increased  by 
Mrs.  E.  W.  Cole  to  ten  thousand,  the  design  and  con- 
ditions of  v^rhich  gift  are  stated  as  follows  : 

"  The  object  of  this  fund  is  to  establish  a  foundation 
for  a  perpetual  Lectureship  in  connection  with  the  Bib- 
lical Department  of  the  University,  to  be  restricted  in  its 
scope  to  a  defense  and  advocacy  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. The  lectures  shall  be  delivered  at  such  inter- 
vals, from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  deemed  best  by  the 
Board  of  Trust ;  and  the  particular  theme  and  lecturer 
shall  be  determined  by  nomination  of  the  Theological 
Faculty  and  confirmation  of  the  College  of  Bishops  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  Said  lecture 
shall  always  be  reduced  to  writing  in  full,  and  the  man- 
uscript of  the  same  shall  be  the  property  of  the  Univer- 
sity, to  be  published  or  disposed  of  by  the  Board  of 
Trust  at  its  discretion,  the  net  proceeds  arising  there- 
from to  be  added  to  the  foundation  fund,  or  otherwise 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  Biblical  Department." 


Preface 

I   AVAIL  myself  of  the  privilege  offered 
by  a  preface  to  say  some  things  which 
do  not  belong  in  the  body  of  a  book. 
These    are   altogether   personal   statements, 
and  are  not  intended  either  to  explain  or  to 
anticipate  the  pages  which  follow. 

These  studies  are  an  attempt  to  express 
certain  ideals  for  personal  and  ministerial  life 
which  are  the  product  of  many  influences  and 
the  growth  of  many  years.  Some  of  the  in- 
fluences are  here  gratefully  named  and  all  are 
thankfully  acknowledged ;  but  after  thirty 
years  of  reading,  listening,  writing  and  speak- 
ing on  such  themes  as  these  the  lines  between 
a  man's  reading  and  his  own  thinking  are 
not  always  clearly  defined  and  distinct  even 
to  his  own  mind.  I  do  not  doubt,  therefore, 
that  many  readers — if  there  should  be  many 
— will  recognize  in  these  pages  many  ideas 
and  even  expressions  which  belong  to  other 

9 


lO  '  PREFACE 

men.  I  make  this  large  and  grateful  ac- 
knowledgment to  cover  all  that  is  not  spe- 
cifically acknowledged  in  the  lectures  them- 
selves. The  lectures  will  in  large  measure 
serve  their  purpose  if  they  pass  on  to  other 
men  the  influences,  inspirations  and  instruc- 
tion, recognized  and  unrecognized,  received 
by  me  from  many  sources  throughout  my 
whole  ministry.  The  extent  of  these  influ- 
ences it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  over- 
state. Men  and  books  have  done  their  work 
and  left  their  permanent  mark.  I  cannot  for- 
get, for  example,  that  on  my  way  to  my  first 
year  in  the  School  of  Theology  I  carried  with 
me  and  read  with  absorption  the  **  Yale  Lec- 
tures" of  both  Simpson  and  Brooks,  and  that 
within  the  first  few  weeks  of  my  life  in  the 
School  of  Theology,  Bruce' s  Training  of  the 
Twelve  and  Brooks'  Bifluence  of  Jesus  came 
into  my  hands.  If  I  am  able  to  transmit 
to  my  brethren,  young  and  old,  any  small 
part  of  what  these  and  other  men  have  done 
for  me,  my  gratitude  will  be  unmeasured. 

The  small  volume  is  dedicated  to  my  wife 
and  the  dear  memory  of  our  daughter.    Their 


PREFACE  II 

love  has  been  life's  finest  and  highest  personal 
inspiration.  But  in  a  very  real  sense  the  lec- 
tures are  also  dedicated  to  "  the  bishops  and 
other  clergy  "  of  all  the  churches  with  the 
earnest  and  constant  prayer  that  in  all 
churches,  in  all  places,  and  at  all  times  the 
men  chosen  by  Christ  may  make  full  proof 
of  their  ministry. 

The  preparation  of  this  volume  has  brought 
me  anew  for  many  months  into  the  New 
Testament  with  its  wonderful  story  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  disciples,  and  into  many 
volumes  interpretative  of  this  perpetual  rec- 
ord. This  experience  has  been  an  unspeak- 
able privilege  in  the  midst  of  a  life  in  which 
administrative  cares  tend  constantly  to  absorb 
all  energies.  And  the  experience  has  created 
anew  a  joy  and  high-heartedness  in  thinking 
of  the  ministry  itself,  even  in  a  day  in  which 
it  is  thought  that  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  lost  much  of  its  attractiveness. 

The  gracious  and  sympathetic  hearing,  the 
generous  and  beautiful  Christian  courtesy  of 
Vanderbilt  University  and  the  people  of 
Nashville  during  six  days,  made  the  delivery 


12  PREFACE 

of  the  course  an  event  to  be  remembered 
with  profoundest  appreciation  while  life  lasts. 
I  make  special  mention  of  most  valuable 
help  in  the  preparation  of  the  lectures  for 
final  delivery  and  publication,  received  from 
my  dear  friends,  the  Reverend  Ezra  Squier 
Tipple,  D.  D.,  of  Drew  Theological  Semi- 
nary, the  Reverend  Charles  M.  Stuart,  D.  D., 
Litt.  D.,  editor  of  the  Northwestern  Christian 
Advocate^  and  the  Reverend  Doremus  A. 
Hayes,  S.  T.  D.,  of  Garrett  Biblical  Institute. 

William  Fraser  McDowell. 

Chicago^  Illinois,  June  /,  igio. 


Contents 

Chosen  by  the  Master 

I.  To  Hear  What  He  Says         ,        .15 

II.  To  See  What  He  Does   ...       57 

III.  To  Learn  What  He  Is    .        .        .     loi 

Sent  Forth  by  the  Master 

IV.  With  a  Message      .         .         .         .163 

V.  With  a  Program     ....     209 

VI.  With  a  Personality        .        .        ,     261 


13 


LECTURE  I 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER  : 
TO  HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS 


LECTURE  I 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER: 
TO  HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS 

UNDER  the  general  subject  announced 
I  seek  to  interpret  the  present  op- 
portunity and  task  of  the  Christian 
ministry  in  some  of  its  vital  phases.  The 
theme,  however,  relates  itself  so  largely  to 
the  life  of  the  whole  church  in  the  world  that 
our  studies  together  will  not  be  at  all  tech- 
nical or  professional.  I  trust  that  both  the 
subject  and  its  treatment  may  be  of  real  in- 
terest to  all  who  love  our  Lord  and  long  for 
the  coming  of  His  kingdom. 

I  am  mindful  of  the  terms  of  the  generous 
foundation  of  this  lectureship,  and  devoutly 
trust  that  this  study  comes  clearly  within  the 
scope  of  those  pious  purposes  which,  in  es- 
tablishing the  Cole  Lectureship,  put  wealth 
at  the  service  of  truth,  that  truth  might  have 
a  larger  place  in  the  world. 

The  invitation  of  your  faculty  and  college 

17 


l8  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

of  bishops  to  present  these  lectures  awakens 
not  only  my  personal  gratitude  but  the  deep 
and  sincere  appreciation  of  the  church  whose 
servant  I  am.  From  that  church  and  for 
myself  I  bring  affectionate  thanks. 

Do  not  expect  too  literal  adherence  to  our 
subject.  I  shall  not  stray  far  from  it,  but 
shall  not  slavishly  adhere  to  it.  A  rhetorical 
figure  becomes  very  tiresome  if  overworked. 
An  analogy  does  not  look  well,  crawling 
through  six  or  seven  lectures  "  on  all  fours." 
We  are  after  the  chief  things  in  the  School  of 
Christ,  not  its  mechanics.  And  these  chief 
things  are  the  master,  the  students,  the  truth, 
the  program,  the  fellowship,  the  spirit  and 
the  results.  After  these  and  their  meaning 
we  shall  search. 

I  am  always  seeking  to  interpret  to  my- 
self and  to  my  brethren  the  ministry  I  have 
hoped  and  am  yet  hoping  to  achieve.  One 
would  better  lose  his  life  than  his  ideals. 
And  one  can  easily  be  forgiven  for  trying  to 
interpret  his  ideals,  not  his  practices,  to  his 
fellows  in  the  same  field.  That  keeps  the 
dreams  alive,  the   ideals   fresh.     One   must 


TO   HEAR   WHAT   HE   SAYS  I9 

never  cease  to  think  of  the  kind  of  minister 
he  wishes  and  purposes  to  be  before  the  end 
of  the  day  comes. 

The  particular  Scriptures  upon  which  our 
study  will  be  based  are  these : 


"  And  He  goeth  up  into  the  mountain, 
and  calleth  unto  Him  whom  He  Himself 
would  ;  and  they  went  unto  Him.  And 
He  appointed  twelve,  that  they  might  be 
with  Him,  and  that  He  might  send  them 
forth  to  preach,  and  to  have  authority  to 
cast  out  demons." — Mark  Hi.  13-16. 

"As  Thou  didst  send  Me  into  the 
world,  even  so  sent  I  them  into  the 
world." — -John  xvii.  18, 


The  men  thus  chosen  and  sent  are  now  in 
our  stately  phrase  called  "  the  glorious  com- 
pany of  the  apostles,"  but  that  is  what  they 
became,  not  what  they  were  at  first.  **  They 
companied  Him  all  the  time  that  He  went  in 
and  out  among  them."  They  became  a 
glorious  company  by  being  in  glorious  com- 
pany. How  simple,  unaffected  and  suggestive 
this  record  is  !  We  seem  to  be  reading  some 
paragraphs  out  of  our  own  history.     We  can 


20  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

easily  interpret  this  whole  scene ;  the  per- 
fection of  the  Master,  the  imperfection,  the 
strangeness,  the  hopefulness  of  the  student ; 
the  slow  communication  of  truth,  the  slower 
grasp  of  it ;  the  Master's  interest,  the  dis- 
ciples' response — we  can  see  it  all.  The 
eyes  of  our  understanding  are  enlightened 
by  a  like  experience. 

It  is  a  solemn  thing  when  Master  and  men 
get  thus  together.  It  means  much  to  the 
world  to  this  very  day  that  Saul  met  Gama- 
liel, that  Wesley  went  to  Oxford  and  that 
Stanley  went  to  Rugby.  Responsive  life 
falls  under  the  influence  of  masterful  life  in 
these  educational  processes,  for  the  weal  or 
woe  of  the  very  world  itself.  For  the  door 
into  the  School  of  Christ  is  so  placed  as  to 
command  a  clear  view  of  the  door  out.  The 
matriculant  has  the  graduate  in  view.  Enter- 
ing relates  to  departing.  Companying  with 
Him  bears  on  being  sent  forth  to  cast  out 
demons  and  fill  the  world  with  truth.  The 
noble  gateway  to  Cornell  University  con- 
tains this  inscription  which  every  student 
reads :   **  So  enter  that  daily  thou  may  est  be- 


TO   HEAR  WHAT   HE   SAYS  21 

come  more  thoughtful  and  more  learned. 
So  depart  that  daily  thou  mayest  be  more 
useful  to  thy  country  and  to  mankind." 

The  training  of  the  twelve  was  a  part  of 
the  plan  for  the  saving  of  the  world.  The 
Master  gave  them  the  **  lion's  share  "  of  His 
attention,  but  not  for  their  sakes.  He  gave 
them  more  than  half  of  His  teaching,  the 
best  of  His  energy  and  the  most  of  His  time. 
But  He  knew  what  He  was  doing.  These 
were  not  more  important  than  the  others, 
any  more  than  we  are.  They  were  only  im- 
portant for  the  others.  He  would  have  been 
glad  to  have  better  men.  He  would  still 
be  glad.  But  He  was  glad  to  have  such  as 
they  were  and  is  glad  to  have  such  as  we 
are.  They  were  not  a  glorious  company 
when  they  came  to  Him.  They  were  not 
much  more  than  an  average  group,  in  spite 
of  the  two  or  three  conspicuous  ones,  but 
"  He  breathed  on  them  and  made  them  il- 
lustrious "  ;  or,  as  Whittier  says  : 

"  They  touched  His  garment's  fold,  and  soon, 
The  Heavenly  Alchemist  transformed  their  very  dust 
to  gold." 


22  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

They  went  with  Him,  they  stayed  with  Him, 
they  learned  of  Him.  Long  afterwards  "  men 
took  knowledge  of  them  that  they  had  been 
with  Him."     This  is  the  eternal  order. 

We  must  be  impressed  with  the  method 
of  Jesus  as  here  shown.  Did  He  know  how 
short  His  ministry  would  be  ?  And  was  this 
the  wisest  way  for  Him  to  spend  it  ?  Into 
His  innermost  thoughts  we  may  not  enter, 
but  clearly  this  was  the  wisest  way.  He 
wanted  to  reach  the  world.  Through  these 
men  He  could  do  it.  There  was  no  better 
way.  He  wanted  to  enlighten  the  world. 
He  could  do  it  in  no  surer  way  than  to  fill 
these  men  with  light.  He  called  them  the 
light  of  the  world  before  He  was  done.  He 
wanted  to  leaven  the  mass.  It  does  not  take 
much  leaven,  it  only  requires  real  leaven  to 
do  it.  One  man  counts  for  more  than  an- 
other. One  can  chase  a  thousand  and  two 
put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  "  Jesus  began  the 
salvation  of  the  world  by  training  twelve 
Christlike  men  and  the  whole  Christian 
world  now  acknowledges  that  it  was  the 
wise    and    divine   way."     Not    much   stress 


TO   HEAR   WHAT   HE   SAYS  23 

need  be  laid  upon  their  number.  There  were 
enough  of  them  to  give  Him  His  chance 
upon  nearly  every  type  of  character.  He  is 
a  poor  reader  of  the  record  who  does  not 
find  himself  in  it.  We  need  not  go  off  any 
campus  or  out  of  any  community  to  dupli- 
cate the  group.  We  are  like  them  in  greater 
or  less  degree.  If  we  are  disturbed  by  their 
commonplace  qualities,  their  narrow  provin- 
cialism, their  petty  prejudices,  their  childish- 
ness and  jealousies,  their  quick  tempers  and 
constant  weaknesses,  we  would  do  well  to 
look  for  these  qualities  in  ourselves.  That 
early  group  is  gone.  Our  group  remains. 
But  the  Master  has  much  the  same  task  with 
us  as  with  them.  He  left  them  mightily  im- 
proved. It  paid  the  world  for  them  to  go 
into  the  School  of  Christ.  For  they  came 
out  a  dozen  of  the  most  useful  and  serv- 
iceable men  in  all  history.  That  miracle, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  is  about  the  largest  that 
He  wrought.  It  gives  me  hope  that  He  will 
do  it  again.  It  would  attract  more  attention 
if  some  day  the  Master  would  walk  on  Lake 
Michigan  as  on  a  sidewalk,  or  quiet  its  toss- 


24  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

ing  waves  by  a  word.  But  it  will  be  worth 
more  to  truth  and  to  the  world  if  there  on 
the  shores  of  the  lake  He  shall  transform  the 
raw  human  material  He  gets  into  the  men 
that  He  wants.  That  is  the  real  miracle. 
As  long  as  that  is  going  on  the  denial  of  the 
supernatural  is  pure  foolishness.  As  long  as 
He  keeps  on  making  apostles  and  prophets 
out  of  such  disciples  as  He  secures  it  will  be 
easy  to  believe  in  His  deity.  Only  God  can 
do  that  kind  of  work.  **  What  He  did  with 
them  proves  what  can  be  made  of  ordinary 
men  when  they  surrender  themselves  to  the 
guidance  of  His  spirit." 

This  is  enough  by  way  of  introduction. 
We  must  come  to  details.  A  school  offers 
three  fundamental  things,  viz :  truth,  prac- 
tice, and  example ;  or  in  other  words  the  cur- 
riculum, the  relation  of  that  curriculum  to 
life,  and  the  exemplification  of  the  truth  and 
the  activity  in  the  teacher.  These  are  pri- 
mary matters  in  education.  A  school  is 
good  or  bad  as  it  meets  or  fails  to  meet 
these  tests.  Applying  this  outline  to  our 
study  we   should   say  that   the   student  en- 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  25 

ters  the  School  of  Christ  for  three  supreme 
things : 

1.  To  hear  what  Jesus  says,  or  to  master 

His  teachings ; 

2.  To  see  what  Jesus  does,  or  to  become 

familiar  with  His  program  ; 

3.  To  learn  what  Jesus  is,  or  to  become 

acquainted  with  His  personality. 

This  is  the  threefold  task  of  the  student. 
He  will  be  sent  forth 

1.  To  proclaim  and  interpret  the  Mas- 

ter's teaching  to  the  world ; 

2.  To  continue  and  fulfill  the  Master's 

purpose  in  the  world  ; 

3.  To  reveal  the  Master's  character  to 

the  world. 

For  ease  of  recollection  we  might  resort  to 
alliteration  and  say  that  one  is  sent  forth  with 
a  proclamation,  a  program  and  a  person- 
ality. The  preparatory  task  of  the  minister 
is  to  get  his  truth,  form  his  life  program, 
and  to  become  a  man.  His  public  task  is  to 
use  his  materials,  complete  his  program 
and  consecrate  the  man  he  has  become  to 
the  service  of  men.  This  is  the  simple  out- 
line of  all  I  have  to  say  in  these  days. 


26  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

No  one  can  read  the  Gospels  without  seeing 
that  Jesus  laid  stress  upon  three  things  :  His 
teaching,  His  work,  His  person.  He  did  not 
lay  the  whole  stress  upon  any  one  of  them. 
He  looked  upon  His  teaching  as  a  revela- 
tion, upon  His  deeds  as  a  revelation,  and 
upon  Himself  as  a  revelation.  He  brought 
to  bear  upon  life  His  truth,  His  activities  and 
His  personality.  These  features  cannot  be 
torn  apart  without  violence.  It  would  be 
like  tearing  the  seamless  robe.  In  the  case 
of  the  Master  the  unity  of  teaching,  doing 
and  being  is  absolute.  We  use  different 
terms,  like  prophet,  priest  and  king;  like 
teaching,  miracle  and  person,  not  to  indicate 
independent  and  exclusive  features  of  Christ's 
total  work,  but  vitally  related  and  essential 
aspects  of  that  work.  The  authority  of  Jesus 
extends  to  teaching,  to  activity  and  to  life. 
He  spoke  with  authority,  He  exercised  au- 
thority over  men  and  nature.  He  was  author- 
ity in  the  realm  of  life  or  personality.  He 
was  a  prophet  mighty  in  deed  and  in  word 
and  in  character.  On  this  basis  we  shall 
study  together,  using  that  fruitful  and  pro^ 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  27 

found  principle  of  Bible  study  which  yields 
such  rich  results  to  life.  We  shall  study  our 
subject  with  the  Bible,  using  it  as  a  means 
rather  than  as  an  object,  seeking  to  ascertain 
not  merely  what  it  says  but  what  it  teaches. 
We  shall  study  its  statements  in  the  light  of 
its  principles. 

Let  us  look  now  for  a  moment  at  the  place 
of  teaching  in  the  life  and  plan  of  Jesus. 
What  value,  absolute  and  relative,  did  He 
place  upon  what  He  said  ?  Surely  it  is  fair 
to  Him,  or  to  any  great  teacher,  to  obtain 
His  own  estimate  of  the  features  of  His  own 
ministry.  Here  jesus  seems  exceedingly  il- 
luminative. Apparently  He  gave  a  supreme 
but  not  an  exclusive,  a  high  but  not  solitary 
emphasis  to  His  teaching.  He  exalted  it 
but  not  to  the  discrediting  of  His  deeds  or 
His  person.  He  did  not  'May  the  whole 
stress  of  His  religion  upon  one  part  of  it." 

Men  have  had  trouble  at  this  point.  Men 
naturally  tend  to  become  specialists.  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  looks  so  large  to  one  man 
that  he  exalts  it  above  everything  else.  For 
such  a  man  the  supreme  sentence  is :  "Ye 


28  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free."  He  studies  critically,  and 
finally  writes  upon  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
He  makes  a  classified  collection  of  the  words 
of  Jesus  and  calls  it  the  substance  or  essence 
of  the  Gospel.  He  tells  the  world  that  this 
is  all  one  needs  to  know.  He  sets  the  par- 
ables and  prayers  and  sermons  above  the 
miracles.  With  a  great  show  of  faith  and 
liberality  such  a  man  often  declares  that  he 
could  lose  the  miracles  out  of  the  record  and 
still  retain  essential  Christianity  in  Jesus* 
teachings. 

To  another  type  the  work  of  Jesus  looks  so 
large  that  he  practically  disparages  every- 
thing else.  For  such  a  man  the  supreme 
sentence  is:  "He  went  about  doing  good." 
Deeds  are  set  over  against  words.  The 
atonement  is  at  the  centre  of  such  a  view. 
The  cross  ranks  above  everything  else.  Jesus 
is  classed  as  a  man  of  action  rather  than  a 
man  of  speech.  The  priest  is  exalted  above 
the  prophet. 

Or  the  person  of  Christ  gets  chief  place. 
Not  what  He  said  or  what  He  did  but  what 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE   SAYS  29 

He  was  is  the  supreme  thing  in  such  a  view. 
His  person  becomes  the  test  for  creed  or 
platform.  Men  make  the  assertion  of  Christ's 
deity  a  shibboleth,  the  final  test  of  orthodoxy. 
And  some  such  have  asserted  fervently  the 
deity  of  His  person  along  with  a  virtual  de- 
nial of  the  divinity  of  His  work. 

Nobody  is  finally  satisfied  with  this  method, 
though  the  tendency  has  existed  through  the 
whole  history  of  the  Church,  as  many  have 
pointed  out.  Words  are  set  over  against 
deeds.  We  distinguish  between  men  of 
speech  and  men  of  action.  Our  experience 
with  men  fairly  drives  us  to  such  distinc- 
tions. We  do  not  expect  to  find  all  good 
qualities  in  one  person. 

The  integrity  and  balance  of  Jesus'  life 
amaze  us  because  we  have  nowhere  else  seen 
anything  like  it.  In  our  experience  the  three 
great  terms,  prophet,  priest  and  king,  would 
assert  diversity,  if  not  contradiction.  In  Jesus 
they  declare  with  emphasis  an  unbreakable 
unity.  His  work,  His  teaching  and  His  life 
were  all  on  a  level  and  all  of  a  piece.  One 
feature  cannot  be  torn  away  without  ruin  to 


30  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

all.  The  perfect  deed  and  the  perfect  speech 
fit  perfectly  into  His  perfect  life.  The  saying 
and  the  cross  are  not  two  but  one  in  Christ's 
life.  You  cannot  choose  between  miracle  of 
utterance  and  miracle  of  healing.  You  can- 
not say  that  one  is  more  valuable  than  the 
other  in  a  life  where  both  are  essential.  Open 
graves  and  parables  stand  together.  Whether 
speaking  to  one  or  to  a  crowd,  whether  work- 
ing a  miracle  or  being  nailed  to  a  cross,  He 
was  working  His  Father's  works  and  speak- 
ing as  never  man  spake.  Possibly  the  very 
first  lesson  we  have  to  learn  in  the  School  of 
Christ  is  the  high  but  not  solitary  place  of  truth 
and  its  utterance,  the  place  of  wisdom  and 
its  teaching.  Teaching  is  important  in  any 
great  life,  not  because  teaching  stands  alone, 
but  because  it  stands  related.  The  man  must 
not  speak  like  an  archangel  and  behave  like 
a  fool  or  a  fiend.  Many  excellent  and  active 
men,  pure  and  diligent  men,  have  suffered 
decay  or  atrophy  concerning  truth  and  its 
teaching.  The  wealth  of  Jesus'  ministry  was 
not  one  sided.  It  had  no  shrivelled  or  feeble 
features. 


TO   HEAR   WHAT  HE   SAYS  3I 

The  place  of  teaching  in  His  ministry  was 
determined  by  the  purpose  or  object  of  His 
teaching.  The  objects  of  speech  should  lie 
behind  the  subjects  and  the  methods  of  speech. 
The  object  of  the  sermon  should  condition 
the  subject  of  it.  The  final  cause  should  de- 
termine all  that  follows.  Now  Jesus  was  not 
primarily  a  philosopher  or  a  wonder  worker 
or  even  a  model  person.  He  was  the  divine 
Redeemer,  in  what  He  said,  in  what  He  did 
and  in  what  He  was.  He  was  the  Redeemer 
when  speaking  the  parables  as  when  dying 
on  the  cross ;  the  Redeemer  when  preaching 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  when  suffering 
in  the  garden.  This  was  and  is  His  highest 
name.  There  will  be  no  higher  name  known 
in  earth  or  heaven.  The  unity  of  His  three- 
fold life  is  the  unity  of  His  supreme  purpose. 
It  is  not  the  unity  of  sermon  or  of  cross.  It 
is  the  unity  of  that  ethical,  religious,  vital 
purpose  that  binds  way  and  truth  and  life 
together  for  the  redemption  of  men.  Because 
of  this  final  purpose  He  will  use  all  perfect 
intellectual  forms  and  fully  satisfy  the  intel- 
lectual life  by  His  teaching  ;  He  will  use  truth 


32  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

not  as  a  philosophy,  not  as  a  body  of  doc- 
trine, not  as  a  theory  of  life,  not  as  a  science, 
but  as  a  living  force  to  set  men  free.  He  will 
not  choose  and  adopt  His  style  as  a  stylist 
for  the  style's  sake,  but  as  a  Redeemer  for 
humanity's  sake.  He  wanted  men  to  have 
right  ideas,  but  chiefly  in  order  that  they 
might  have  right  lives.  He  described  the 
kingdom  so  well  because  He  wanted  to  get 
men  into  it. 

Remember  that  Jesus  was  not  seeking  to 
formulate  a  series  of  phrases.  He  would 
hardly  have  chosen  wayside  wells,  fishing- 
boats  and  similar  places  for  such  a  purpose. 
Nor  would  He  have  failed  to  write  if  this  had 
been  His  chief  concern.  He  knew  that  men 
are  not  saved  by  a  phrase,  however  exact,  but 
by  a  person.  The  end  of  all  His  speech  was 
the  revelation  of  the  saving  person  to  unsaved 
life.     This  requires  perfection. 

Certain  types  of  mind  have  been  much 
scandalized  over  Christ's  failure  to  frame  and 
phrase  the  substance  of  His  teaching  so  that 
it  would  be  handy  for  use  in  debate  or  as  a 
creed  or  for  ready  reference.     Repairing  this 


TO  HEAR  WHAT   HE  SAYS  33 

oversight  has  been  the  chief  task  of  some  of 
these  men.  But  phrase  making,  even  rehg- 
ious  phrase  making,  is  almost  the  lowest  form 
of  religious  ability.  Christ  was  concerned 
with  truth  for  life.  He  was  the  least  aca- 
demic and  the  most  vital  of  all  teachers.  He 
was  like  John  Bunyan's  man  running  through 
the  streets  crying,  "  Life,  life,  life  I "  Truth  for 
this  purpose  had  to  come  through  personality. 
It  could  not  come  in  a  series  of  propositions. 
God  could  not  bring  His  perfect  message  ex- 
cept through  an  incarnation.  The  nature  of  it 
and  the  purpose  of  it  made  a  personality  es- 
sential. What  Jesus  was  made  vibrant  what 
He  said. 

The  place  and  purpose  of  teaching  in 
Jesus'  ministry  determined  the  manner  of  it. 
This  struck  His  hearers  first.  It  was  interest- 
ing and  won  their  attention  ;  it  was  gracious 
and  won  their  confidence ;  it  was  with 
authority  and  compelled  their  respect.  Be- 
fore they  took  hold  of  its  substance  its 
manner  arrested  them.  And  this  is  not  an 
accident.  If  one  is  bent  on  making  a  series 
of  exact  propositions  he  does  not  need  to  be 


34  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

interesting  or  gracious ;  he  only  needs  to  be 
accurate  and  precise.  But  because  Jesus 
was  bent  on  a  far  nobler  purpose  He  was  the 
supremely  interesting  teacher  of  the  world. 
The  centre  of  the  Herbartian  principle  is  that 
the  sin  of  a  teacher  is  to  be  uninteresting. 
Being  interesting  is  a  quality  that  small  men 
and  some  great  ones  despise,  always  to  their 
hurt.  It  is  a  quality  that  weak  men  put  on 
and  simply  exhibit  their  folly.  For  the 
quality  of  being  interesting  is  fundamental, 
not  artificial.  It  goes  far  beneath  the  man- 
ner to  the  matter  of  one's  discourse,  and  has 
quite  as  much  to  do  with  the  substance  as 
with  the  form  of  speech.  It  is  funda- 
mental to  one  who  shares  the  Master's 
purpose.  Stupidity,  dullness,  even  when 
called  by  nobler  names,  like  profundity  and 
depth,  are  fundamentally  fatal.  They  are 
not  fatal  to  the  maker  of  propositions,  but 
wholly  so  to  the  Saviour  of  men. 

This  vital  quality  of  being  interesting 
comes  not  by  nature  or  offhand  to  pupils  like 
ourselves.  There  is  no  such  thing  here  as 
spontaneous  generation.     And   being  inter- 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  35 

esting  is  not  the  same  as  being  entertaining. 
Do  not  imagine  that  any  cheap  quaHty  is  a 
substitute  for  it.  It  is  noble  and  dignified 
like  the  quality  of  being  serious  and  true. 
We  must  not  be  misled  by  the  apparent  ease 
and  spontaneousness  of  our  Master's  utter- 
ances. What  He  did  with  evident  ease  can 
only  be  done  by  us  with  constant  pains. 
But  He  took  pains.  He  said  what  He  had 
to  say  as  well  as  He  could  say  it,  which  is 
just  as  well  as  it  could  be  said.  I  heard  one 
praising  the  unstudied  utterances  of  Jesus, 
setting  far  below  them  all  the  most  careful 
utterances  of  all  other  men,  and  discounting 
carefulness  of  speech  in  Christ's  name.  But 
his  emphasis  was  almost  wholly  on  their 
apparent  spontaneity  rather  than  upon  their 
manifest  perfection.  And  because  his  own 
utterances  were  totally  unstudied  he  thought 
they  were  like  the  Master's.  If  you  like  that 
you  can  do  it.  Extemporized  perfection  is 
not  very  attractive. 

I  have  a  friend  who  is  an  almost  perfect 
story  teller.  His  friends  watch  with  keen 
delight  the  exquisite  and  artistic  perfection 


36  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

with  which  he  always  uses  the  precise  word 
and  perfect  turn  of  phrase.  If  one  is  going 
to  be  a  story  teller  it  is  worth  while.  One 
owes  that  to  the  story,  to  the  audience  and 
to  himself. 

Now  the  great  preachers,  faithful  students 
in  the  School  of  Christ,  have  made  it  a 
matter  of  conscience  to  say  what  they  had  to 
say  as  well  as  they  could.  A  slovenly 
sentence  offends  like  soiled  linen.  No  won- 
der the  common  people  heard  Christ  gladly  ; 
it  is  a  wonder  that  they  listen  to  some  men 
at  all.  We  owe  a  triple  debt  to  the  man 
who,  being  a  good  man,  brings  a  good  mes- 
sage and  brings  it  as  it  ought  to  be  brought. 
I  can  never  forget  a  certain  sermon  on  the 
Beatitudes  by  a  man  whom  I  cannot  name 
here.  I  speak  reverently  when  I  say  that  I 
think  the  maker  of  the  Beatitudes  must  have 
been  grateful  for  this  noble  exposition  of 
them.  Arnold  says  that  Gray  doubled  his 
force  by  his  style.  Any  man  can.  We  talk 
of  gifts  of  expression.  If  you  have  them 
thank  God  and  make  them  perfect ;  if  you 
have  them  not  remember  that  what  is  denied 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE   SAYS  37 

you  as  a  gift  may  be  gained  by  "  daily, 
nighdy  and  eternal  toil."  I  cannot  go  into  a 
discussion  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  style. 
But  I  cannot  get  into  the  substance  of  our 
Master's  teaching  without  declaring  to  you 
that  He  said  what  He  had  to  say  as  well  as 
it  could  be  said.  Nothing  was  unconsidered 
or  ill  considered.  And  this,  too,  was  part  of 
the  conscience  of  our  Master.  He  did 
everything  like  that.  He  did  it  as  well  as  it 
could  be  done.  He  thought  it  worth  while 
to  do  it  perfectly.  And  our  Master  is  our 
model.  Edward  Everett  Hale  once  said  that 
a  whole  generation  of  Harvard  men  wrote 
good  English  because  of  '*  dear  Ned  Chan- 
ning's  influence."  The  best  religious  speech 
in  the  world  ought  to  come  from  the 
students  in  the  School  of  Christ.  They  have 
an  exhibition  of  religious  speech  in  its  per- 
fection. 

It  would  be  a  vain  and  pedantic  repetition 
of  familiar  matters  to  call  detailed  attention 
to  the  various  forms  used  by  our  Master 
while  those  early  students  were  with  Him. 
It  would,  however,  be  wholly  improper  to 


38  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

overlook  this  entirely.  He  used  every  good 
and  useful  form  of  religious  speech  because 
of  the  end  He  had  in  view.  Wishing  to 
touch  life  at  every  point,  using  language  and 
truth  always  as  the  noble  instrument  of  His 
perfect  intention,  He  employed  all  the  forms 
of  thought  and  speech  necessary  to  this  pur- 
pose. The  student  who  has  heard  a  teacher 
only  in  public  address  has  been  cheated 
somewhere.  He  ought  to  have  conversa- 
tions, prayers,  utterances  on  special  occa- 
sions and  something  like  parables  to  remem- 
ber also.  I  can  hear  across  the  years  the 
prayers  of  McCabe,  Warren  and  Latimer. 
Listening  to  them  we  obtained  a  new  sense 
of  the  meaning  of  intercession  and  the  value 
of  prayer.  They  made  life  overflow  with 
rapture  and  grace ;  they  put  the  cry  of  the 
cross  into  the  language  of  petition  and  saved 
it  from  selfishness.  Reverence  for  the  act  of 
prayer  restrains  us  from  saying  what  ought 
to  be  said  about  certain  exhibitions  of  it. 
But  you  wonder  sometimes  that  men  listen 
to  it  at  all.  And  you  wonder  often  whether 
God  does.     Then  up  out  of  our  Master's  life 


TO  HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  39 

comes  that  thrilling  cry  of  triumph :  **  I 
know  that  Thou  hearest  me  always."  And 
we  are  in  the  School  of  Christ  to  hear  what 
He  said  in  His  prayers  as  well  as  other 
speech,  and  to  hear  how  He  said  it. 
**  Master,  teach  us  to  pray,  not  as  John 
taught  his  disciples,"  but  as  Thou  Thyself 
didst  do  it,  so  that  perchance  He  will  hear 
us  always  also. 

So  with  religious  conversation.  Into  this 
too  He  put  conscience.  Many  men  simply 
put  into  it  stupidity  or  clumsiness  or  clever- 
ness or  dullness  or  impertinence.  His  con- 
versations with  one  or  a  group  reveal  what 
can  be  done  with  conversation  when  a  man 
and  a  man  are  face  to  face.  Life  does  not 
offer  a  much  larger  opportunity  than  this. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  any  is  less  perfectly 
used.  Yet  some  have  learned  its  value  and 
the  act  of  doing  it.  I  shall  forever  count  it 
a  blessing  beyond  words  that  on  many  an 
afternoon  I  walked  over  the  hills  near  Boston 
with  a  certain  philosopher  while  he  talked  of 
the  deep  things  of  God. 

The  manner  of  our  Master  in  the  high  use 


40  CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

of  all  these  noble  forms  of  speech  was  not  in- 
tended to  perish  with  His  passing  from  our 
sight.  I  partly  paraphrase  and  partly  quote 
what  another  man  has  said  of  it :  **  He  had  no 
cathedrals,  or  candles,  or  paintings,  or  incense. 
He  made  His  words  take  their  place.  His 
phrases  were  candles  giving  forth  a  sacred 
light.  His  sentences  were  paintings  pictur- 
ing things  which  the  heart  adores.  His 
paragraphs  were  incense  filling  all  the  place 
with  a  heavenly  aroma.  His  words  gave 
colour  and  fragrance,  and  life  and  fire,  and 
left  the  soul  flooded  with  melody  in  God's 
immediate  presence." 

And  I  apply  to  our  Master  what  Mr.  Kip- 
ling has  said  in  another  connection :  "  He 
spoke  so  that  the  words  became  alive  and 
walked  up  and  down  in  the  hearts  of  all  His 
hearers.  A  bare  half  hundred  words  .  .  . 
spoken  twenty  centuries  ago  can  still  lead 
whole  nations  into  or  out  of  captivity,  can 
open  to  us  the  doors  of  three  worlds  or  stir 
us  so  intolerably  that  we  can  scarcely  abide 
to  look  at  our  own  souls." 

The  quotation  of  Christ's  sentences  is  one 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  41 

of  the  easiest  intellectual  exercises  because 
the  sentences  are  so  perfect ;  the  mastery  of 
Christ's  teaching  is  the  consummate  intel- 
lectual achievement.  Taking  texts  is  not 
difficult,  especially  when  there  are  so  many 
good  ones,  but  I  venture  to  say  to  you  that 
when  you  have  mastered  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  you  may  have  your  degree.  Those 
earliest  pupils  were  slow  to  understand  what 
He  said,  even  when  they  had  the  benefit  of 
His  own  accent,  emphasis,  gesture  and  look. 
Their  story  is  not  altogether  reassuring  to 
us.  Maybe  we  are  like  them  chiefly  in  our 
slowness  and  dullness.  The  effort  to  master 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  never  greater  than 
in  our  own  day.  We  have  come  upon  very 
good  times  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  for 
that  reason.  It  is  good  to  live  in  an  era 
which  seeks  to  put  the  teaching  of  the  Su- 
preme Teacher  in  its  real  place,  to  give  it  its 
true  standing  and  to  give  it  a  true  interpre- 
tation to  the  world.  A  dozen  volumes  could 
be  named  containing  more  or  less  satisfactory 
attempts  to  do  this  work  for  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.     A  few  have  been  so  foolish  as  to  try 


42  CHOSEN    BY   THE   MASTER 

to  give  the  substance  of  His  teaching.  It 
proves,  however,  to  be  ail  substance  as  we 
have  it.  What  may  have  been  true  of  His 
unrecorded  sayings  it  is  idle  to  guess.  What 
we  have  can  be  ampUfied,  expanded  and 
diluted,  but  not  condensed. 

Just  as  the  end  Christ  had  in  view  de- 
termined the  form  of  His  utterance,  so  that 
end  determined  the  matter  of  His  teaching. 
His  ministry  was  the  answer  to  life's  cry. 
What  He  said  and  how  He  said  it  alike 
came  into  life.  There  was  no  speculation  in 
it ;  no  talk  for  talk's  sake  ;  no  mere  dis- 
cussion of  subjects ;  no  academic  use  of 
truth.  All  His  teaching  was  for  life,  the  life 
of  man  and  the  life  of  society.  This  is  the 
true  norm  of  it  as  of  all  true  teaching. 
St.  Paul  was  urging  this  test  when  he  told 
the  Thessalonians  to  prove  all  things.  He 
had  been  speaking  of  spiritualities  and  proph- 
esyings  and  then  he  said :  Prove  them. 
Bring  them  to  the  test  of  life.  Are  they  good 
to  live  by  ?  They  will  bear  the  test  of  logic 
if  they  meet  this  vital  test.  This  is  divine 
pragmatism.     There  is  in  Jesus'  teaching  no 


TO   HEAR  WHAT   HE  SAYS  43 

answer  to  idle  curiosity,  no  encouragement  to 
the  thing  we  are  so  fond  of,  no  verbal  fencing, 
no  argument  for  argument's  sake.  Always 
He  spoke  the  truth,  spoke  it  in  love,  spoke  it 
in  love  for  the  truth  as  a  philosopher  might, 
spoke  it  in  love  for  men  like  a  true  redeemer. 
He  did  not  answer  direcdy  many  of  those 
questions  which  then  and  now  perplex  men's 
minds.  They  existed  then  as  now.  He 
flooded  Hfe  with  the  light  of  His  life  and  the 
questions  vanished,  even  though  mystery 
remained.  He  loved  truth  not  for  truth's 
sake  but  for  what  He  knew  it  would  do  for 
men.  He  was  thus  more  than  a  philosopher. 
He  loved  men  as  He  saw  them  in  the  light 
of  what  truth  would  do  for  them,  and  was 
thus  other  than  a  philanthropist.  Truth  to 
Him  was  not  as  to  a  medieval  theologian  a 
system  of  doctrines  to  defend,  nor  as  to  a 
reformer  a  code  to  obey,  nor  as  to  a  scientist 
a  collection  of  facts.  It  was  a  thing  of  per- 
sonal power  and  had  to  do  with  setting  out 
into  true  freedom  John  and  Peter  and  Nico- 
demus  and  the  disputatious  woman  at  the 
well. 


44  CHOSEN   BY   THE  MASTER 

Those  early  students  in  the  School  of 
Christ  found  day  by  day  that  the  things  they 
were  hearing  Him  say  were  laying  hold  of 
the  roots  of  their  being,  transforming  thought, 
emotion  and  will.  Hearing  what  He  said 
they  found  it  good  for  them,  and  felt  that 
they  must  become  like  Him.  He  taught 
them,  for  example,  to  repent  of  their  bad 
lives.  I  heard  once  years  ago  an  elaborate 
sermon  on  that  subject.  It  began  with  an 
allusion  to  the  place  of  repentance  in  the 
plan  of  salvation.  You  would  have  supposed 
that  repentance  existed  that  it  might  come 
in  the  proper  place  in  the  way  of  salvation. 
But  nobody  repented.  The  sermon  was  en- 
tirely correct  and  orthodox  and  dead.  Being 
orthodox  and  dead  it  might  as  well  have 
been  buried.  I  think  the  preacher,  if  he  had 
lived  long  enough  ago,  would  have  been 
called  a  Scribe.  He  had  made  a  sermon  on 
repentance.  Apparently  he  thought  one 
due  about  that  time.  It  was  well  made,  as 
well  as  a  faithful  carpenter  could  make  it. 
It  was  properly  jointed  and  smoothed  and 
oiled,  a   good   piece  of   sermonic   furniture, 


TO   HEAR  WHAT  HE  SAYS  45 

made  of  good  wood  well  put  together.  And 
nobody  repented.  Nobody  was  expected  to. 
The  preacher  was  a  good  man,  but  he  had 
never  been  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Matthew 
at  all.  The  kingdom  was  at  the  gates  of  the 
small  town  where  he  was  preaching  ;  there 
were  sick  all  about  and  no  hospital  near  ; 
there  were  men  and  boys  possessed  of 
demons,  and  so  far  as  he  was  concerned  no 
relief  for  them.  There  were  a  hundred  things 
worth  doing  which  unrepentant  men  could 
not  do,  and  the  worker  in  wood  left  it  for  a 
later  preacher,  a  generation  later,  after  the 
demons  had  destroyed  many  who  were  dear 
to  cry  out  like  the  Master :  Repent  because 
goodness  is  going  to  get  a  chance  right  here 
in  this  town  ;  the  kingdom  is  at  hand.  And  in 
that  later  day  men  flung  down  their  sins, 
turned  their  backs  upon  them,  and  opened 
the  village  gates  for  the  kingdom  to  come 
in,  all  because  a  man  like  us  had  been  in  the 
School  of  Christ  to  hear  what  Jesus  said. 
One  man  was  carefully  explaining  a  doctrine. 
The  other  was  shooting  life  through  with 
truth.     One  man  had  rationalized  the  thing, 


46  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

the  other  had  both  rationalized  it  and  vital- 
ized it. 

The  parables  have  this  note  in  common : 
the  principle  of  good  is  thrown  into  every 
form  of  life  that  life  may  be  saved.  The 
evangel  breaking  out  of  the  skies  comes  to 
men  at  their  common  tasks.  The  privileges 
of  the  kingdom  are  all  mixed  with  the  duties 
of  life.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  not 
wholly  a  proclamation  of  good  news,  except 
so  far  as  the  opening  of  a  life  of  good  is 
always  such  a  proclamation.  The  perfectly 
tremendous  "  therefore  "  at  the  end  of  that 
sermon  grips  character  and  conduct  like  a 
vise.  This,  they  must  have  felt,  is  not  mere 
teaching.  This  is  teaching  with  a  motive 
and  a  purpose.  This  is  teaching  with  power. 
There  was  no  despising  of  doctrine  as  the 
manner  of  some  is,  but  a  setting  of  doctrines 
and  character  into  such  relation  that  truth 
looked  big  and  valuable. 

Many  writers  have  sought  to  give  the  out- 
line of  Jesus'  teaching.  It  does  not  easily  lend 
itself  to  outline.  ''What  we  want  is  not  a 
summation  of  doctrine.   We  have  had  enough 


TO  HEAR  WHAT  HE   SAYS  47 

of  that.  What  we  want  a  great  deal  more  is 
something  to  give  us  breadth  of  standing 
and  a  greater  vitality  of  idea."  Sanday  in 
his  Hastings'  Dictionary  article  on  "Jesus 
Christ"  says  there  are  five  distinctive  and 
characteristic  topics  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus : 

(i)     The  Fatherhood  of  God. 

(2)  The  Kingdom  of  God. 

(3)  The    Subjects    or    members    of    the 

Kingdom. 

(4)  The  Messiah. 

(5)  The  Paraclete  and  the  Trinity  of  God. 

Perhaps  that  is  as  good  a  summary  of  topics 
as  any,  but  we  must  immediately  feel  how 
unsatisfactory  it  is.  Lyman  Abbott  in  his 
book  The  Christian  Ministry  says :  "  There 
have  been  many  attempts  to  formulate  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  Of  these  the  earliest  is 
that  contained  in  the  Epistle  to  Titus :  *  The 
grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath 
appeared  to  all  men,  teaching  us  that  deny- 
ing ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should 
live  soberly,  righteously  and  godly  in  this 
present  world  ;  looking  for  that  blessed  hope, 
and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God 


48  CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ '  (Titus  ii. 
11-13)."  This  summary  indicates,  he  thinks, 
what  the  early  Church  thought  of  Christ's 
teaching,  and  also  that  it  thought  of  Christ 
as  a  teacher  of  systematic  truths,  or  of  truths 
which  could  be  systematized,  and  which  be- 
ing systematized  would  be  comprehensive 
and  complete,  covering  all  the  categories  of 
human  experience.  **  For  man  stands  in  four 
relations  in  his  life  involving  ethical  obliga- 
tion, and  only  four  ; — relation  to  the  material 
world,  relation  to  his  fellow  man,  relation  to 
God,  and  relation  to  the  future.  And  Jesus 
taught  us  how  we  should  live  in  these  four 
relations." 

The  principles  of  life,  that  is  what  those 
first  students  had  the  chance  to  learn.  Per- 
haps the  whole  case  may  be  put  in  these  two 
questions  :  What  subjects  did  Jesus  think  im- 
portant for  life?  And  what  did  He  think  it 
important  to  say  about  them?  Life  in  its 
essence  does  not  change.  So  it  comes  to 
pass  that  teaching  which  both  in  substance 
and  form  had  to  be  conditioned  by  time  and 
space,  addressed  to  a  given  generation  in  a 


TO   HEAR  WHAT   HE   SAYS  49 

language  which  that  generation  understood, 
has  remained  fresh  and  vital  through  all  the 
changing  conditions  of  man's  unchanging  life 
through  nineteen  centuries.  The  ordinances 
and  institutions  of  the  world  have  under- 
gone tremendous  change.  There  are  many 
governments  now  in  existence  wholly  differ- 
ent in  type  and  condition  from  any  known  in 
Christ's  day.  The  vast  Western  world  has 
been  opened,  one  might  almost  say  created, 
since  the  first  disciples  listened  to  Him. 
Christianity  has  become  the  religion  of  new 
races  since  His  earthly  life.  Still  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  fit  like  the  light  or  the  atmosphere 
into  all  the  changed  conditions.  For  life  has 
remained  unchanged.  And  men  feel  that  in 
New  York  and  Chicago  as  in  Bethany  and 
Jerusalem  His  teachings  still  show  the  right 
relation  between  men  and  institutions,  be- 
tween rules  and  life,  between  character  and 
property,  between  worship  and  obedience. 
And  all  this  because  the  specific  rules  were 
so  few  and  the  general  principles  so  large ; 
and  because  He  was  fundamentally  teaching 
men  how  to  live. 


50  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

We  can  still  get  the  principles  of  Christ  out 
of  the  statements  of  Christ.  No  doubt  those 
first  students  had  the  same  foolish  desire  that 
we  and  others  have  had  for  such  specific  rules 
as  would  have  saved  them  from  thinking,  for 
such  statements  as  would  have  given  them  a 
kind  of  mechanical  certitude,  "  something  fixed 
that  you  can  quote  and  swear  by."  No  doubt 
they  like  ourselves  had  the  craving  for  accu- 
racy of  phrase.  Such  phrases  serve  well  the 
purpose  of  mechanical  evangelists,  and  debat- 
ing, proof-text  theologians.  To  those  who 
only  get  part  way  into  the  secret  of  His  teach- 
ing Jesus  must  ever  be  a  distinct  disappoint- 
ment. The  average  man  will  forgive  doctri- 
nal unsoundness  more  readily  than  the  least 
shadow  of  indefiniteness.  But  to  those  who 
go  clear  into  His  teaching,  the  result  is  beyond 
all  words.  It  is  not  a  *'  Body  of  Divinity  "  nor 
a  code  of  rules  for  every  emergency,  nor  a 
series  of  detached,  unrelated  sayings.  It  is 
a  body  of  truth  upon  which  life  rests  and  out 
of  which  life  grows  ;  a  set  of  principles  which 
do  not  act  as  substitutes  for  thought  but 
which  make  thinking  fruitful  and  not  barren ; 


TO   HEAR   WHAT   HE   SAYS  5 1 

a  series  of  related  sayings,  no  one  contradict- 
ing another  one,  and  all  of  the  kind  to  which 
life  in  every  age  responds  as  true. 

You  can  take  a  score  of  illustrations,  all 
equally  good.  One  of  the  categories  of  life 
is  the  category  of  human  relations.  Who  is 
my  neighbour  and  how  shall  I  treat  him,  and 
what  shall  I  expect  of  him  ?  And  ^there  is 
not  a  word  in  the  Gospels  about  apartment 
houses,  or  life  in  hotels,  or  classifications  by 
streets.  The  social  customs  of  His  day  were 
totally  unlike  the  social  customs  of  ours.  A 
new  industrial  condition  has  come  into  the 
world.  The  fish  trade  is  not  what  it  was  in 
Peter's  time,  but  after  all  these  centuries 
human  life  finds  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
illuminated  by  His  life  as  all  teaching  must 
be,  a  perfectly  luminous  answer  to  all  these 
hard  questions.  They  are  hard  because  we 
are  unwilling  to  apply  the  teaching  which  we 
learn  in  this  school.  We  are  always  tempted 
to  stop  with  the  statement  rather  than  to 
discover  and  apply  the  principle. 

Now  the  mastery  of  this  teaching  in  its 
manner  and  its  substance,  its  form  and  its 


52  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

essence,  its  relation  to  activity  and  to  per- 
sonality, its  eternal  meaning  under  the  forms 
of  time,  its  germinal  quality  in  all  time,  its 
universal  meaning  expressed  in  local  terms, 
its  living  principles  in  its  particular  state- 
ments, its  philosophy  and  its  ethical  quality, 
its  religious  value  and  literary  perfection,  its 
historic  interest  and  world-wide  application, 
— the  mastery  of  this  teaching  is  the  supreme 
intellectual  achievement  of  life.  Upon  this 
task  one  might  spend  his  years.  And  when 
one  has  fully  mastered  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
in  its  bearing  upon  life  here  and  hereafter, 
life  itself  and  its  relations,  he  may  go  to  the 
head  of  the  procession. 

I  cannot  close  what  I  have  to  say  to-day 
without  two  special  words  : 

In  the  summary  of  Christ's  teaching  quoted 
by  Sanday,  what  seems  to  me  the  supreme 
term  was  not  mentioned,  though  it  was  im- 
plied. I  set  down  here  my  conviction  that 
the  great  term  in  the  teaching  was  the  term 
Salvation,  the  supreme  impression  upon  those 
early  pupils  was  that  this  Master  of  theirs 
was  all  men's  Redeemer.     We  need  not  sur- 


TO   HEAR   WHAT   HE   SAYS  53 

render  now  or  any  time  to  a  soft  and  un- 
worthy evangelicalism.  We  need  not  forget 
that  a  word  is  always  in  danger  of  becoming 
a  shibboleth.  We  must  not  forget  the  infi- 
nite scope  and  universal  range  of  the  teach- 
ing to  which  we  are  listening.  We  must 
hold  it  all  together  in  its  rich,  manifold  and 
integral  relations ;  but  we  cannot  get  fairly 
into  the  centre  of  it  except  through  the  name 
given  to  our  Master  before  His  birth,  the 
song  the  angels  sang  above  the  shepherds 
on  the  hills,  the  sentence  He  spoke  the  day 
He  dined  with  Zaccheus.  His  doctrine  of 
redemption  lies  at  the  centre  of  all  He  said. 
Into  the  wondering  ears  of  those  who  heard 
Him  long  ago  fell  such  words  as  forgiveness 
and  new  birth,  and  ''  go  and  sin  no  more." 
Whatever  other  impression  they  received  or 
did  not  receive  as  they  heard  what  Jesus 
said  through  the  years,  they  should  have 
obtained  the  impression  that  their  Master 
was  their  Redeemer  and  the  Redeemer  of 
all  men  ;  that  He  told  men  truth  so  that  they 
might  be  free  from  sin,  that  His  teachings 
like  His  life  were  thrown  into  life  for  life's 


54  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

redemption.  This  is  true  evangelicalism 
This  is  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed 
God,  this  is  the  very  centre  of  the  Gospel. 
You  can  cluster  all  the  rest  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  around  this  statement  of  fact :  "  The 
Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost. ' 

The  other  word  follows :  This  perfect 
teacher's  highest  service  was  not  the  state- 
ment of  a  truth  nor  the  working  of  a  miracle. 
Nor  is  this  the  highest  and  best  impression 
He  makes  upon  men.  The  best  thing  that 
He  or  any  one  has  ever  done  for  others  is  to 
make  the  true  and  living  God  real  and  liv- 
ing to  them.  Always  there  is  a  tendency  for 
God  to  become  a  phrase.  The  revelation 
becomes  a  doctrine  and  the  doctrine  becomes 
a  dogma.  It  has  always  been  hard  for  men 
to  keep  God  in  all  their  thoughts.  It  is 
easier  now  for  many  to  talk  about  the  king- 
dom than  to  realize  the  God  whose  kingdom 
it  is,  and  who  alone  gives  the  kingdom  its 
value.  Now  go  through  that  three  years' 
course  listening  to  what  Jesus  said  and  you 
will  find  Him  saying  a  good  deal  besides 


TO   HEAR  WHAT   HE  SAYS  55 

that  which  He  said  to  the  people  about  God. 
His  consciousness  of  them  does  not  seem 
more  constant  than  His  consciousness  of 
God.  "  As  the  Father  knoweth  Me,  even  so 
know  I  the  Father."  ''I  thank  Thee  that 
Thou  hast  heard  Me."  And  "  I  know  that 
Thou  hearest  Me  always." 

What  things  those  first  students  in  the 
School  of  Christ  had  to  remember !  It  is  a 
wonder  John  could  keep  still  so  long.  It  is  a 
greater  wonder  that  he  could  write  it  down  at 
all.  I  wonder  sometimes  what  those  early  dis- 
ciples used  to  say  to  one  another  about  what 
He  had  said.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  I  have  carried  in  memory  a  certain 
forenoon  in  a  plain,  barren  class  room  when 
we  forgot  to  take  notes  while  a  man  spoke 
of  God.  No  one  could  ever  recall  how  long 
he  talked  or  quite  what  he  said.  None  of  us 
spoke  of  it  that  day.  Long  afterwards  two 
worn  and  grizzled  men  found  themselves  sit- 
ting in  a  new  upper  room  while  they  talked 
it  over.  Do  you  see  ?  Need  I  go  on  ? 
Sometimes  the  disciples  heard  what  Jesus 
said    while  He  was  talking  to  God.     Then 


56  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

they  saw  the  heavens  open  and  God  was 
made  real  to  them  as  Jesus  spoke  to  Him. 
And  we  are  in  this  school,  still  listening  to 
what  He  says  both  to  men  and  to  God,  what 
He  says  of  men  and  of  God. 

**  Hushed  be  the  noise  and  the  strife  of  the  schools, 
Volume  and  pamphlet,  sermon  and  speech, 
The  lips  of  the  wise  and  the  prattle  of  fools. 

Let  the  Son  of  Man  teach  ! 
Who  has  the  key  of  the  future  but  He  ? 
Who  can  unravel  the  knots  in  the  skein  ? 
We  have  groaned  and  have  travailed  and  sought 
to  be  free  : 

We  have  travailed  in  vain. 
Bewildered,  dejected  and  prone  to  despair, 
To  Him  as  at  first  do  we  turn  and  beseech : 
Our  ears  are  all  open  !     Give  heed  to  our  prayer  ! 

Oh,  Son  of  Man,  teach !  " 


LECTURE  II 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER  : 
TO   SEE  WHAT   HE   DOES 


LECTURE  II 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER:  TO  SEE 
WHAT  HE  DOES 

ONE  day  when  John  the  Baptist  was 
in  prison,  dejected  and  in  doubt,  his 
mind  clouded  and  his  heart  troubled 
by  conditions,  he  sent  a  messenger  to  ask 
Jesus  a  plain,  direct  question :  "  Art  Thou 
He  that  should  come  or  do  we  look  for  an- 
other?" What  he  heard  in  prison  was  not 
reassuring.  The  reported  conduct  of  Jesus 
lacked  vigour.  John  was  in  condition  and 
in  mood  to  demand  that  the  Messiah  should 
prove  Himself  by  some  severe  or  drastic 
measures  against  people  clearly  deserving 
such  measures.  John's  own  conduct  had 
been  more  radical  and  heroic  than  anything 
reported  to  him  concerning  Christ.  His 
question  was  petulant,  possibly,  but  John 
ought  not  to  be  blamed  for  his  anxiety.  He 
had  committed  himself  to  Jesus.     He  now 

59 


6o  CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

felt  that  at  least  he  was  entitled  to  a  plain 
and  unmistakable  declaration  on  the  part  of 
his  leader. 

We  must  always  be  grateful  for  the  man- 
ner of  our  Master's  replies  to  questions.  He 
never  meets  petulance  with  more  petulance 
nor  proper  anxiety  with  rebuke.  Every  re- 
ply fits  exactly  the  question  that  brings  it 
forth.  You  remember  His  luminous  answer 
to  John :  *'  Go  and  tell  John  the  things 
which  ye  hear  and  see.  The  blind  receive 
their  sight  and  the  lame  walk  ;  the  lepers  are 
cleansed  and  the  deaf  hear ;  the  dead  are 
raised  up  and  the  poor  have  the  Gospel 
preached  to  them.  And  blessed  is  he,  who- 
soever shall  not  be  offended  in  Me." 

The  statement  could  not  be  more  perfect 
or  philosophical.  The  Messiah  is  authenti- 
cated by  these  two  proofs :  He  brings  good 
news  to  the  needy  and  does  good  deeds  for 
the  needy.  Miracles  of  mercy  and  gospel  to 
the  poor  are  the  complete  answers  to  the  in- 
quiry. The  person  is  proved  not  by  a  dec- 
laration but  by  an  irresistible  inference. 
What  one  says  and  what  one  does  give  the 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  6l 

basis  for  a  judgment  as  to  what  he  is. 
Speech  and  action  are  the  expressions  of 
personahty  always. 

We  are  concerned  to-day  with  the  program 
of  the  Master,  or  with  seeing  what  He  did  or 
proposed  to  do,  just  as  yesterday  we  were  en- 
gaged with  what  He  said  and  how  He  said  it. 

We  have  grown  used  to  the  story  of 
Christ's  deeds.  Some  of  us  have  grown 
professionally  hardened  with  reference  to 
them.  His  ordinary  and  His  extraordinary 
deeds  alike  seem  to  many  of  us  to  have  been 
wrought  so  that  we  could  make  sermons 
about  them,  or  argue  about  them  in  discus- 
sions concerning  the  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  only  effect  they  have  upon  us 
is  to  cause  a  little  verbal  excitement.  They 
do  not  increase  our  pulse  rate,  they  only  raise 
our  word  rate.  Think  of  the  freshness  of  the 
impression  made  when  the  School  of  Christ 
was  young,  both  by  what  He  said  and  what 
He  did  !  Think  of  having  seen  Him  actually 
doing  those  things  !  Well,  it  is  possible  for 
us  to  get  just  as  vital  and  a  much  more  sig- 
nificant impression  even  of  those  things  done 


62  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

long  ago  and  recorded  in  the  old  and  familiar 
records.  We  have  an  opportunity  for  as 
fresh  an  impression  and  a  better  understand- 
ing. 

One  of  Henry  Drummond's  best  addresses 
was  on  the  program  of  Christianity.  That  is 
a  key-word.  Christ's  miracles  and  other  do- 
ings were  not  detached  and  unrelated  deeds 
any  more  than  His  teachings  were  unrelated 
sayings.  He  entered  into  a  plan.  He  had  a 
program  and  worked  to  it.  Seeing  what 
Jesus  did  is  witnessing  the  significant  unfold- 
ing of  His  life.  In  the  temple  when  He  was 
a  boy  He  said  :  "  I  must  be  about  My  Father's 
business."  In  the  village  church  He  reached 
back  to  the  old  prophecy  and  applied  it  to 
Himself.  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon 
Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor ;  He  hath  sent  Me  to 
heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the 
blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  " 
(Luke  iv.  18-19).  Once  again  He  said : 
**  My  meat  is  to  do  the  works  of  Him  that 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  63 

sent  Me."  And  again,  "  I  must  work  the 
works  of  Him  that  sent  Me."  And  yet  again, 
"  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work." 
And  at  last,  "  I  have  finished  the  work  Thou 
gavest  Me  to  do."  Early  He  identified  Him- 
self with  it.  Constantly  He  kept  at  it.  What 
a  lesson  in  activity  just  to  watch  Him !  A 
lazy  man  would  have  been  very  uncomfort- 
able in  that  school.  And  what  a  sensation  it 
must  have  been  to  be  with  a  person  who  said 
so  many  things  worth  saying  and  did  so 
many  things  worth  doing !  We  have  seen 
an  occasional  person  who  could  talk  wisely 
and  act  foolishly ;  many  another  mighty  in 
word  and  feeble  in  deed  ;  an  occasional  silent 
man,  or  man  of  blundering  speech,  whose 
deeds  were  divine.  But  everything  our  Mas- 
ter said  was  worth  saying ;  there  was  nothing 
better  to  be  said.  Everything  He  did  was 
worth  doing ;  there  was  nothing  better  to  be 
done.  The  words  and  the  deeds  matched 
each  other.  How  would  you  feel,  if  after  a 
three  years'  pastorate  anybody  should  say 
that  kind  of  thing  about  you  ?  How  if  every- 
body should  say  it  ? 


64  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

I.  We  speak  first  to-day  of  the  value  of 
the  Master's  ordinary  conduct. 

The  value  of  His  ordinary  conduct  has 
never  been  sufficiently  stated  or  regarded. 
The  miracles  have  absorbed  attention.  Not 
everything  He  did  was  miraculous.  He  was 
the  carpenter's  Son  living  a  normal,  true 
human  life.  His  life  was  itself  a  wonder,  but 
not  a  startling  succession  of  wonders.  The 
boys  with  whom  He  grew  up  had  a  perfect 
example  of  a  true  and  godly  childhood,  which 
was  not  overwhelming  and  unnatural,  but 
just  true  and  fine  and  wholesome.  Once 
when  He  was  a  dozen  years  old  there  was  a 
flash,  there  in  the  temple,  but  only  Mary  had 
any  unusual  insight  into  that.  Thirty  years, 
a  longer  period  than  some  of  you  have  lived. 
He  lived  the  best  kind  of  a  life  that  can  be 
imagined,  working  quietly  and  honestly  at 
the  carpenter's  trade.  **  These  were  years," 
says  Clarke,  "  of  simple  human  living  as  man, 
citizen,  labourer  and  child  of  God.  In  the 
more  public  life  of  His  later  years  He  is  still  a 
man,  a  friend,  a  member  of  His  nation  ming- 
ling with  men  in  the  ordinary  relations  of  life." 


TO   SEE  WHAT   HE   DOES  65 

And  this  must  have  been  the  first  im- 
pression He  made.  We  get  the  point  of 
contact  with  His  Hfe,  not  at  the  point  of  His 
extraordinary,  but  at  the  point  of  His  ordi- 
nary Uving.  There  was  no  other  way.  Dur- 
ing ail  the  years  He  went  around  doing  good. 
He  went  about  not  doing  wonders  all  the 
time,  but  doing  good  all  the  time,  and  that 
was  a  wonder  itself.  A  certain  famous  teacher 
in  one  of  our  colleges  has  died  within  a  few 
years.  The  last  time  I  visited  the  college 
they  told  me  that  he  visited  all  the  sick,  all 
the  troubled,  all  the  poor  in  the  community, 
being  the  most  useful  man  in  the  small  town, 
and  that  he  seemed  to  think  it  belonged  to 
him  as  a  teacher  of  Greek  to  do  such  things. 
Our  Master  was  always  like  that.  He  evi- 
dently meant  it  to  be  so.  It  was  not  an  acci- 
dent nor  an  incident  in  His  life.  Like  good 
teaching  and  other  things  it  was  the  very  es- 
sence of  His  life.  His  daily  life  was  rich  in 
deeds  of  mercy  and  love. 

*'Thy  litanies,  sweet  offices 
Of  love  and  gratitude ; 
Thy  sacramental  liturgies 
The  joy  of  doing  good." 


66  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

The  striking  and  exceptional  incidents,  those 
that  are  by  name  and  specific  account  in  the 
record,  rather  blind  us  to  the  rest.  Those 
first  pupils  must  have  been  mightily  im- 
pressed with  the  example  of  one  who  could 
do  such  things  as  His  ordinary  deeds  and 
who  would  do  such  things  right  along.  The 
power  to  raise  the  dead  He  did  not  often 
exercise.  It  would  be  rather  a  dangerous 
power  to  put  into  our  clumsy  hands.  But 
the  power  to  comfort,  to  cheer,  to  love,  to 
help  day  by  day.  He  exercised  all  the  time. 
And  that  power  He  freely  transmits.  It  is 
vastly  better  than  the  other  both  for  all  His 
uses  and  for  ours. 

We  have  a  craving  to  do  the  extraor- 
dinary, the  wonderful,  but  the  ability  to  do 
the  ordinary  is  much  more  useful.  We  for- 
get the  climax  in  the  old  words :  **  They 
that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their 
strength,  they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as 
eagles,  they  shall  run  and  not  be  weary, 
they  shall  walk  and  not  faint."  Mounting 
up  on  wings  like  eagles  is  an  experience  that 
is,  at  best,  only  occasional  as  yet.     Running 


TO  SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  67 

is  not  a  common  habit  with  men  and  women. 
Walking  is  still  the  ordinary  method  of  loco- 
motion. Here  is  the  true  climax  :  that  con- 
tact with  God  is  worth  while  in  the  common 
experiences  and  needs  of  man.  Grace  is 
not  valuable  chiefly  for  its  help  in  life's  occa- 
sional and  unusual  hours.  Divine  occa- 
sionalism is  not  so  rich  as  divine  con- 
stancy. 

Christ's  habit  of  going  about  doing  good, 
teaching  men  how  **to  live  well  with  one 
another  according  to  Christ,"  making  His 
daily  life  a  ministry,  this  has  been  over- 
looked or  exalted  to  the  miraculous.  What 
would  Jesus  do  ?  What  did  Jesus  do  ?  He 
helped  people  and  helped  them  all  the  time. 
It  was  said  of  a  certain  woman,  **  She  hath 
done  what  she  could."  The  words  apply  to 
Jesus :  "  He  did  what  He  could  do."  He 
found  an  old  doctrine  of  election  which  had 
once  been  right  and  had  become  sadly 
wrong.  He  turned  it  right  side  up  again, 
and  interpreted  election  not  in  terms  of 
privilege  but  in  terms  of  service.  He  illus- 
trated it,  not  by  putting  on  a  white  tie  or  a 


68  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

scholar's  gown  and  talking  eloquently  about 
it,  but  by  helping  His  neighbours  in  many  a 
gracious  act.  He  found  a  worn-out  doctrine 
of  the  Messiah  and  restored  it  to  its  true 
significance.  He  was  defining  the  Messiah 
in  that  message  to  John.  The  Messiah  will 
bring  good  news  to  the  needy  and  will 
perform  good  deeds  for  the  needy.  The 
Messianic  man  will  do  it  again.  Jesus  was 
not  a  parlour  socialist  nor  a  reformer  from 
the  chair  nor  a  doctrinaire.  He  defined 
brotherhood  and  Messiahship  in  terms  of 
personal  activity  and  service. 

2.  We  speak  in  the  second  place  of  the 
significance  of  His  extraordinary  doings. 

These  are  usually  called  miracles,  though 
He  called  them  signs,  which  is  a  much  better 
word.  Calling  them  miracles  sets  them 
apart  in  a  class  by  themselves  for  special 
treatment.  It  pretty  nearly  requires  an  act 
of  violence  to  get  miracles  where  they  can 
touch  common  life.  It  has  been  a  loss  that 
the  study  of  them  has  been  so  academic, 
so  philosophical,  so  evidential.  We  have 
largely  lost  sight  of  their  suggestiveness  to 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  69 

ministering  men,  their  pedag-ogical  value  in 
a  world  needing  such  lessons  from  such 
deeds.  The  talk  about  the  possibility  of 
eliminating  the  miracles  from  the  record  and 
still  leaving  all  that  is  essential  goes  wide  of 
the  mark.  Their  chief  value  is  not  eviden- 
tial but  illustrative  and  suggestive.  The 
world  would  be  infinitely  poorer  with  them 
torn  from  the  record,  even  if  they  could  be 
taken  out.  Life  is  not  all  on  a  dead  level, 
and  must  not  be  reduced  to  utter  common- 
place. We  are  not  trying  to  save  Jesus,  we 
are  trying  to  save  life.  And  a  Messiah  must 
not  be  reduced  to  a  talking  prophet,  doing  a 
few  good,  easy  things.  For  we  have  some 
hard  things  to  do  yet,  as  hard  as  anything 
He  ever  did.  An  insufBcient  Messiah  is  an 
intolerable  Messiah.  His  works  have  vital 
meaning  for  us.  For  our  faith  is  not  in 
miracle  but  in  Christ,  and  the  tearing  of 
miracle  out  of  the  record  does  not  add  to 
our  faith  in  Him,  say  what  men  will.  The 
evidential  value  of  the  miracles  does  not 
depend  upon  their  incongruity  with  the 
order  of  nature,  but  upon  their  perfect  con- 


70  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

gruity  with  the  character  of  Christ  and  His 
aims. 

Now  it  is  no  part  of  our  program  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  of  the  historicity  of  the 
miracles.  That  would  carry  us  too  far  afield. 
There  are  two  tendencies  with  great  names 
behind  each.  One  tendency  goes  to  the 
elimination  or  at  least  the  reduction  of  the 
miraculous.  The  other  goes  straight  the 
other  way.  Take  these  sentences  from  San- 
day  :  "  The  evidence  for  all  these  miracles 
(in  the  Gospels)  generally  speaking  is  strong. 
The  evidence  for  all  the  difEerent  classes  is 
equally  strong.  The  historian  who  tries  to 
construct  a  reasoned  picture  of  Christ  finds 
that  he  cannot  dispense  with  miracles." 
Thus  also  Forrest :  **  As  regards  mere  testi- 
mony we  have  more  ancient  evidence  for 
His  miracles  than  for  many  of  His  sayings.'* 
And  from  Illingworth  I  quote  another  word  : 
**  They  are  so  essentially  a  part  of  the  char- 
acter depicted  in  the  Gospels  that  without 
them  that  character  would  entirely  disap- 
pear. They  flow  naturally  from  a  Person, 
who,  despite  His  obvious  humanity,  impresses 


TO  SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  7I 

US  throughout  as  being  at  home  in  two 
worlds.  We  cannot  separate  the  wonderful 
life,  or  the  wonderful  teaching  from  the  won- 
derful works."  "The  process  of  thought 
and  research,  both  theological  and  scientific, 
has  led  to  a  position  where  belief  in  the 
actuality,  in  the  career  of  Jesus,  of  those 
remarkable  activities  and  manifestations 
summed  up  under  the  comprehensive  and 
popular  term  '  miracle,'  is  made  possible  if 
not  inevitable.  The  prevailing  negative  at- 
titude of  science  shows  signs  of  being 
abandoned  in  view  of  enlarging  understand- 
ing of  the  possibilities  both  in  Matter  and  in 
Spirit,  and  theology  is  coming  to  see  that 
the  miraculous  events  recorded  of  Him  who 
was  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Regenerator  of 
the  Race  must  not  be  conceived  of  as  in  any 
sense  or  degree  a  violation  of  the  order  of 
Nature ;  and  that  viewed  in  this  way  they 
become,  instead  of  difficulties  and  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  way  of  faith,  some  of  its  most 
convincing  reinforcements.  It  is  scarcely 
too  much  to  affirm  that  a  belief  in  these 
occurrences  as  vital  parts  of  the  Christian 


72  CHOSEN  BY  THE   MASTER 

revelation  is  rising,  compared  with  which  all 
previous  belief  is  feeble  and  superficial.  With- 
out being  unduly  optimistic,  we  may  antici- 
pate that  the  *  ages  of  faith '  in  every  depart- 
ment of  Christian  truth,  and  not  least  in  that 
of  miracle,  are  yet  to  come.  This  consum- 
mation is  being  prepared  for  in  modern 
conceptions  of  the  Order  of  Nature,  of 
Human  Personality,  and  of  the  Divine 
Being." 

It  is  for  us  to  consider  them  from  our 
practical  position  as  students  in  the  School 
of  Christ.  I  think  they  will  seem  to  us  much 
more  significant  as  exhibitions  of  truth  and 
purpose  and  power  than  simply  as  exhibitions 
of  power.  They  look  extraordinary  to  us 
because  we  cannot  do  them.  Apparently 
our  Master  did  not  regard  them  as  extra- 
ordinary at  all.  Nor  were  they  for  Him. 
The  law  of  cause  and  efiect  does  not  seem 
to  be  set  aside  when  He  does  an  unusual 
thing.  Indeed,  He  did  not  think  wonders 
the  most  important  things  He  did.  Some 
mathematical  geniuses  can  do  marvellous 
sums  to  the  amazement  of  everybody.     One 


TO   SEE  WHAT   HE   DOES  73 

of  them  once  told  me  that  he  did  not  set 
great  store  by  his  abiUty  to  do  those  prodig- 
ious sums.  He  regarded  the  right  use  of 
mathematics  in  Hfe's  ordinary  transactions 
as  far  more  valuable. 

Jesus  never  would  conduct  an  exhibition 
miracle.  "  He  imposed  upon  Himself  strict 
restraint  in  the  use  of  His  supernatural 
powers."  As  near  an  approach  as  any 
was  when  He  said,  **  But  that  ye  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  author- 
ity on  earth  to  forgive  sins  He  said  to 
the  sick  of  the  palsy,  '  Arise,  take  up  your 
bed  and  go  home'  "  ;  but  that  was  chiefly  an 
exhibition  of  true  forgiving  power  ;  an  exhi- 
bition of  God's  grace  rather  than  of  anything 
else.  It  was  related  chiefly  not  to  palsy 
but  to  forgiveness.  Everything  He  did  was 
done  with  reference  to  His  whole  program. 
It  sprung  from  His  heart  and  bore  upon  His 
mission.  He  was  not  seeking  to  accredit 
Himself  as  one  seals  a  document.  He  was 
seeking  to  reveal  Himself.  "These  works 
were  expressions  of  character  as  much  as 
they  were   evidences   of   power ;   they  were 


74  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

works  of  love  before  they  were  works  or 
signs  of  power."  "  These  were  divine  things 
done  in  a  world  where  not  many  such  things 
were  being  done."  He  could  do  things  and 
He  did  them.  He  wanted  men  to  know  that 
God  cared  for  them.  Doing  things  for  them 
was  one  way  of  showing  them  that  this  was 
so.  So  He  matched  up  His  declarations  with 
His  deeds.  And  the  miracles  like  the  parables 
became  revelations  of  the  character  and 
thought  of  God.  Somebody  has  said  that 
the  parables  were  miracles  of  utterance  and 
the  miracles  parables  of  action.  That  sounds 
well.  It  sounds  so  fine  that  I  suspect  it  of 
being  too  fine.  But  men  learn  what  a  teacher 
is  from  what  he  does  as  from  what  he  says. 
Here  was  one  claiming  to  have  come  from 
God.  Some  ears  were  too  dull  to  hear  what 
He  had  to  say.  His  words  fell  upon  fat 
hearts.  So  like  an  old  time  professor  of 
chemistry  or  physics  He  would  make  His 
appeal  through  the  eye.  He  must  reach  men. 
They  must  be  made  aware  of  God,  and  that 
God  was  with  Him.  The  miracles  show  it, 
which  is  vastly  better  than  simply  attesting  it. 


TO   SEE  WHAT   HE   DOES  75 

And  they  all  show  what  we  must  think  of 
Christ.  And  they  were  all  wrought  "  for  the 
transformation  of  man's  lot,  man's  aims, 
man's  hopes  and  man's  destiny."  They 
harmed  no  person  ;  they  blessed  all.  They 
taught  that  God  is  good  ;  they  certified  that 
men  could  trust  God.  Students  in  the  School 
of  Christ,  have  you  learned,  are  you  learning, 
from  what  He  did  and  how  He  did  it,  how 
the  ordinary  and  extraordinary  deed  alike 
bear  on  the  chance  that  God  will  get  with 
men  ?  Everything  was  part  of  Christ's  pro- 
gram, that  He  might  bring  men  to  God. 
That  is  worth  our  learning.  Somehow  our 
large  anxiety  about  the  laws  of  nature  seems 
rather  disproportionate.  Apparently  some 
men  would  rather  save  a  law  of  nature  than  a 
human  life.  The  laws  of  nature  He  never 
broke,  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  He 
constantly  broke  into.  So  do  we.  And  we 
are  always  glad  when  we  can  make  some  new 
combination  and  obtain  some  new  control 
which  makes  life  richer. 

But  the  most  astonishing  thing  about  this 
Master  of  ours  is  that  He  apparently  never 


76  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

uses  any  of  His  supernatural  power  for  Him- 
self. He  makes  no  bread  for  Himself  in  the 
wilderness  when  He  is  hungry.  He  makes 
bread  in  quantities  in  the  desert  for  the 
hungry  multitudes.  He  broke  into  the  course 
of  nature  again  and  again,  but  always  to  help 
somebody  else  than  Himself.  The  sight  of 
actual  need  could  always  secure  superhuman 
sympathy  and  assistance  from  Him.  It  is  not 
so  much  the  exercise  of  power  that  proves  Him 
a  supernatural  person,  as  it  is  the  constant 
display  of  unselfishness,  compassion,  mercy 
and  love  in  all  that  He  did.  How  long  must 
we  study  Him  in  His  activities  ?  Until  we 
are  moved  by  the  same  motive  and  spirit. 
And  it  will  appal  us  after  this  to  hear  Him 
saying  those  great  words :  *'  Greater  works 
than  these  shall  ye  do."  But  that  is  just  like 
a  true  teacher.  He  always  wants  his  true 
pupil  to  excel  and  surpass  him  in  life  and 
achievement.  Thus  the  world  moves  forward. 
He  came  into  a  world  largely  **like  our 
own,  though  like  with  a  difference.  Spiritual 
concern  had  somewhat  evaporated.  People 
were  living  on  secular  levels,   bounded  by 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  77 

secular  horizons."  The  power  of  an  endless 
life  was  not  felt.  Pleasure  and  material 
good,  which  are  both  good,  were  in  danger  of 
being  thought  the  chief  good.  Religion  was 
an  inheritance  and  a  respectability,  a  thing  of 
race  and  descent.  Into  this  condition  He 
brought  His  great  personality  ;  into  it  He 
flung  His  vital  ideas ;  upon  it  He  brought  to 
bear  His  perfect  program.  There  you  have 
three  mighty  terms :  the  man,  the  truth,  the 
program ;  the  personality,  the  ideas,  the 
plan ;  or  to  limit  it  a  little,  the  preacher,  his 
theology,  his  purpose.  We  have  learned,  or 
shall  learn,  in  this  School  that  the  truth  of 
Christ  matched  the  character  of  Christ.  How 
else  could  we  speak  of  the  "  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  "  ?  How  else  could  He  say  "  I  am  the 
truth"?  Many  men  have  felt  that  to  be 
great  men  and  to  have  mighty  truth  would 
insure  supreme  influence  and  usefulness. 
But  this  is  to  overlook  that  other  feature, 
that  essential  feature,  the  activity.  Here  was 
Jesus  who  had  only  a  short  time  at  His  dis- 
posal. What  a  temptation  to  hurry  and 
splutter  and  spoil  things  by  haste  I     But  how 


78  CHOSEN   BY   THE  MASTER 

sanely  He  entered  into  His  program,  and  how 
steadily  He  held  to  it !  Many  men  have 
good  plans  which  they  readily  abandon,  or 
stupid  plans  to  which  they  stubbornly  adhere, 
or  no  plans  at  all.  These  make  great  use  of 
two  words  :  One,  *'  Do  with  your  might  what 
your  hand  finds  to  do,"  without  any  great 
concern  to  see  that  it  has  any  bearing  upon 
life's  reasoned  plan.  The  other  is  that  over- 
worked quotation  concerning  the  reinforce- 
ments that  had  come  up  during  a  battle : 
**  Go  in  anywhere,  there  is  lovely  fighting  all 
along  the  line."  Somewhere  on  that  line 
there  was  a  place  which  was  better  than  any 
other  place  for  these  reinforcements  to  go  in. 
Now  watch  our  Master.  We  are  here  to- 
day to  see  what  He  did  and  proposed.  They 
tried  to  make  Him  change  His  plans,  to  force 
Him  to  be  a  King,  but  He  was  not  a  victim 
to  their  whims,  to  every  wind  that  blew,  be- 
cause He  was  following  a  program  of  His 
own  too  important  to  be  abandoned.  Re- 
member that  He  took  such  men  as  He  had, 
and  worked  with  them.  From  one  point  of 
view  I  think  He  did  not  have  a  chance  with 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  79 

these  men.  Modern  preachers  have  such 
men  as  those  in  mind  when  they  complain 
that  they  can  do  nothing  because  they  have 
no  material  to  work  with.  He  worked  in 
such  circumstances  as  surrounded  Him.  The 
towns  were  not  always  big  or  the  environ- 
ment favourable,  but  He  did  the  best  He 
could  with  what  He  found.  He  tied  up  to 
Himself  what  there  was  that  was  good.  He 
found  some  vitality.  He  attached  Himself 
to  that.  Some  of  it  was  going  in  the  wrong 
direction.  He  changed  its  direction  and 
kept  it  going.  He  did  not  seek  the  weak 
and  passive  souls  who  would  be  readily  sub- 
ject to  His  influence,  and  worth  nothing  even 
under  such  influence.  Many  of  us  do.  He 
did  not  let  all  the  strong  men  spend  them- 
selves on  politics,  social  reforms  and  the  like. 
He  had  and  used  the  magnetic  touch  which 
we  need,  which  laid  hold  of  some  of  the 
strongest  characters  for  the  primary,  not  the 
secondary  or  subsidiary  usefulness.  He 
chose  those  best  personalities  and  bound 
them  to  Him.  **One  man  is  not  as  good  as 
another."     One  man  is  just  as  worth  saving 


8o  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

as  another,  but  not  worth  as  much  when 
saved.  Some  men  are  worth  next  to  nothing 
for  the  kingdom,  some  are  worth  millions, 
some,  as  Mr.  Ruskin  says,  are  **  worth  hav- 
ing." He  went  to  the  depths  of  these  men. 
He  did  not  try  to  *'  make  religion  cheap  in 
the  effort  to  make  it  interesting."  The  ablest 
men  turn  away  from  those  who  have  no  re- 
veaUng  message  from  God  and  no  immortal 
appeal  to  their  deepest  souls.  He  grasped 
these  men  at  their  best,  seized  them  at  their 
strongest  points,  worked  along  the  line  of 
their  faculties  and  attached  them  to  Himself 
with  a  deathless  devotion.  He  put  courage 
into  them.  He  transformed  them.  He  in- 
spired them  with  the  wisdom  of  His  example 
and  the  passion  of  His  plans.  He  attached 
their  talents  and  capacities  to  His.  He  made 
them  over,  took  them  into  training,  put  them 
through  an  apprenticeship,  and  at  last  called 
them  friends  and  left  His  kingdom  in  their 
hands. 

He  left  them  with  the  passion  of  His  own 
example  to  stimulate  and  inspire  them.  "  My 
Father  worketh,  I  work."     This  spectacle  is 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  8l 

contagious.  It  sets  one  on  fire.  It  is  like 
getting  on  the  inside  of  the  wisest,  the  best 
and  the  most  active  man  you  know.  The 
only  comfort  a  lazy  man  or  an  aimless  one 
can  have  in  life  is  in  keeping  away  from 
Jesus  Christ.  Laziness  and  aimlessness  can- 
not live  close  to  Him.  A  French  critic  of 
Rousseau  declares  that  the  deepest  spring 
of  action  in  us  is  the  sight  of  action  in  an- 
other. The  spectacle  of  effort  awakens  and 
sustains  our  own  effort.  It  is  inspiring  to 
watch  Him.  He  does  not  expend  power  by 
His  activities.  That  is  the  way  of  an  ordi- 
nary man.  Jesus  gathers  power.  He  does 
not  exhaust  Himself  by  doing.  Only  a  small 
man  does  that.  He  strengthens  Himself  and 
awakens  others  by  activity. 

And  He  is  so  lavish  in  the  things  He  does. 
We  are  so  prudent  and  careful.  The  parable 
of  the  Sower  describes  the  miracle  of  His 
life.  He  went  forth  to  sow  and  He  sowed. 
He  knew  that  "  in  great  enterprises  economy 
spells  ruin  and  failure.  To  check  expendi- 
ture is  to  trip  up  success."  When  the  sow- 
ing begins  you  cannot  stop  to  count  or  save 


82  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

wheat.  He  flung  economy  to  the  winds.  It 
was  not  careful  and  prudent ;  perhaps  it  was 
not  quite  scientific.  But  Charles  Kingsley 
called  prudence  *'a  nasty  little  virtue."  This 
lavishness  of  our  Master  appeals  to  us  as  we 
watch  it.  He  had  the  grand  passion  for 
men.  **  He  taught  the  multitudes,"  and  "  He 
healed  them  all." 

Now  let  us  press  our  study  a  little  more 
closely  into  the  folds  of  human  life,  indi- 
vidual, social  and  general.  The  program  of 
Jesus  was  not  a  program  of  speeches  nor  ex- 
hibitions, but  a  program  of  life.  Nothing 
could  divert  Him  from  that. 

Here  we  must  proceed  from  the  individual 
to  the  general,  though  we  have  some  general 
directions  and  declarations  to  begin  with. 
"  He  shall  save  His  people."  The  good  tid- 
ings of  great  joy  shall  be  "to  all  people." 
The  world  view  gets  before  us  early.  He 
entered  into  that  plan.  His  own  last  words 
sound  like  a  reaffirmation  of  the  angel  mes- 
sage. But  He  began  with  individuals.  He 
worked  with  them  all  the  time.  He  pressed 
them    to   share  His  large  conception.     The 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  83 

kingdom  is  a  big  term,  and  Peter  is  a  some- 
what turbulent  and  difficult  person.  To  tie 
that  big  term  up  to  one  man  ;  to  relate  that 
one  man  to  the  big  term  ;  that  is  the  double 
problem.  We  talk  about  individual  work 
for  individuals  and  some  of  our  talk  is  very- 
wise  and  some  of  it  exceedingly  foolish.  The 
individual  idea  nowhere  stands  alone,  either 
in  the  teaching  or  in  the  method  of  our 
Master.  No  one  else  ever  did  individual 
work  so  well,  but  it  was  so  well  done  partly 
because  it  did  not  stop  with  being  individual. 
You  have  the  feeling  all  the  time  that  every 
personal  movement  is  taking  place  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  universal,  just  as  in  the  best 
school  the  training  of  the  best  scholar  seems 
to  be  related  to  the  training  of  the  whole 
world.  That  makes  the  individual  case  so 
full  of  meaning. 

Now  just  what  did  our  Master  evidently 
intend  to  do  with  a  man,  or  for  a  man,  or  in 
a  man  ?  We  are  here,  as  those  early  ones 
were,  with  Him  to  see  what  He  did  and  pro- 
posed. He  did  things  upon  character  and 
upon  life.     He  was  not  a  worker  upon  nature 


84  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

chiefly  but  upon  humanity.  We  are  both 
astonished  and  encouraged  that  He  could  do 
and  did  do  so  much  in  so  short  a  time,  with 
such  material.  Maybe  He  can  make  some- 
thing out  of  us.  I  am  always  hopeful  while 
studying  this  subject — but  never  too  hopeful. 
Evidently  He  intended  to  take  full  posses- 
sion of  a  man.  He  captured  such  as  John 
and  James  and  Matthew  at  every  point.  It 
is  wise  to  watch  this  pretty  carefully.  The 
seizing  of  the  emotions  is  not  enough.  The 
control  of  the  thought  is  not  sufficient.  I  re- 
cite a  lot  of  words  here  and  ask  you  to  recall 
how  our  Master  took  possession  of  men  at 
every  one  of  these  points,  at  every  one  of 
these  and  more.  Hear  them  :  Interests,  emo- 
tions, thoughts,  affections,  wills,  energies,  re- 
lations, imagination,  imitation  and  emulation. 
He  made  His  appeal  to  the  whole  man,  for 
He  wanted  to  save  the  whole  man.  He  not 
only  wanted  to  redeem  man  from  sin,  but  from 
smallness  and  insignificance.  No  one  thing 
will  do  that.  Prof.  William  James  in  his 
admirable  Talks  to  Students  declares  that 
"  culture   and   refinement  all  alone  are  not 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  85 

enough  to  do  it.  Ideal  aspirations  are  not 
enough  when  uncombined  with  pluck  and 
will.  But  neither  are  pluck  and  will,  dogged 
endurance  and  insensibility  to  danger  enough 
when  taken  all  alone.  There  must  be  some 
chemical  combination,  some  sort  of  fusion 
of  all  these  principles  for  a  life  objectively 
and  thoroughly  significant  to  result."  Now 
some  men  are  utterly  blind  to  the  things  rep- 
resented by  some  of  these  great  terms.  They 
think  it  enough  that  religion  shall  be  true  ; 
they  do  not  care  that  it  shall  be  interesting 
or  agreeable.  Indeed,  they  rather  despise 
those  qualities  and  call  them  soft  and  un- 
worthy. Or  they  think  religion  a  thing  of 
activities  and  energies  and  scorn  all  the  effort 
to  make  it  rational,  ''to  fit  it  in  with  the  rest 
of  a  man's  mental  furniture."  With  others 
it  simply  lays  hold  of  the  emotions  and  never 
gets  so  far  as  the  thoughts,  the  activities,  or 
the  will.  And  God  is  very  patient  with  this 
blundering  and  shallow  process.  It  is  no  use 
to  close  the  school  because  the  students  are 
one-sided  and  narrow.  But  all  the  time,  if 
our  Master's  example  counts  for   anything, 


86  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

the  Master  is  trying  to  save  the  whole  man 
and,  with  that  in  view,  is  touching  Hfe  at 
every  one  of  the  points  I  have  named. 

It  does  not  quite  answer  to  say  that  He  in- 
tended to  save  life.  The  reply  is  true  but 
general  and  vague.  The  term  salvation 
needs  to  be  reinterpreted  in  terms  of  personal 
meaning  and  modern  life.  What  did  Jesus 
Christ  propose  to  do  with  a  man  ?  These  are 
all  personal  terms.  You  can  answer  only  by 
seeing  what  He  did  and  proposed  to  do  with 
the  men  He  knew. 

Then  under  the  local,  the  temporary,  the 
individual,  the  word  spoken,  the  deed  done, 
must  be  discerned  the  general,  the  perma- 
nent and  the  universal.  In  many  of  the 
regions  where  the  Gospel  has  gone,  for  ex- 
ample, fig  trees  are  not  known,  but  barren, 
fruitless  lives,  with  their  flimsy  excuses  exist 
everywhere.  And  the  curse  of  the  gentle 
Christ  is  upon  uselessness  wherever  found. 

Every  great  term  has  a  tendency  to  sag  as 
the  years  go.  Salvation  is  such  a  term.  It 
tends,  as  all  like  words  do,  to  lose  its  full 
meaning  and  to  become  partial  and  incom- 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  87 

plete.  For  many  salvation  is  identical  either 
with  an  escape  or  an  emotion,  a  personal  ex- 
perience or  a  personal  privilege,  or  both.  It 
does  not  stand  at  all  for  a  complete  trans- 
formation of  the  quality,  the  relations  and 
the  object  of  life.  We  are  not  interested  in 
saving  words,  but  in  saving  men.  What  did 
Christ  propose  to  do  with  a  man?  What 
did  He  do  with  men?  For  what  He  did 
when  upon  earth  He  must  still  be  doing  and 
trying  to  do.  Once  personality  influenced, 
changed,  transformed  personality.  That 
process  must  still  be  going  on,  though  our 
thought  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  always  so 
clear  cut  and  personal  as  that.  We  have  too 
largely  studied  the  question  of  salvation  from 
the  angle  of  sin  and  too  little  from  the  full  circle 
of  personality.  The  painful  division  between 
religion  and  ethics,  the  long  effort  to  get 
Christian  life  into  all  the  regions  of  a  man's 
life,  the  wide-spread  Christian  emotion  that 
does  not  largely  affect  either  intellect  or  will 
— all  this  surely  is  suggestive  of  the  tendency 
of  a  great  term  to  lose  its  full  quality. 

Many   analyses  have  been  made  of  per- 


88  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

sonality.  ''It  is  made  up  of  consciousness, 
character  and  will."  "  The  two  chief  factors 
are  self-consciousness  and  self-determina- 
tion." "  It  has  four  elements  ;  Conscious- 
ness of  self,  I  am  ;  Consciousness  of  power,  I 
can ;  Consciousness  of  obligation,  I  ought ; 
Consciousness  of  determination,  I  will." 
These  do  not  essentially  differ.  Jesus  Christ 
was  Himself  the  vital  definition  of  this  noble 
conception.  He  fully  possessed  Himself. 
Men  under  sin's  dominion  do  not.  His  self- 
consciousness  was  at  one  with  God.  *'  I  and 
My  Father  are  one."  The  sense  of  separa- 
tion is  the  tragedy  of  sin.  His  self-deter- 
mination was  one  with  the  will  of  God.  "  I 
do  always  the  things  that  please  Him." 
Strife  against  the  will  of  God  is  the  common 
human  attitude.  Now  salvation  must  mean 
the  complete  capture,  redemption,  transfor- 
mation of  personality  by  personality.  Christ 
opens  the  way  to  personality,  the  way  of  es- 
cape, the  way  of  light,  the  way  of  power. 
**  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  Me,  that  they  may 
be  perfected  into  Me,"  is  the  final  word.  We 
must  use  all  the  familiar  old  terms  in  describ- 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  89 

ing  the  process,  such  as  forgiveness,  new 
birth,  justification,  sanctification  and  the 
Hke  ;  but  after  all  what  we  seek  to  discover 
is  not  the  partial  but  the  total  effect  of  Christ 
upon  a  man,  of  His  personality  upon  a  man's 
personality.  And  if  we  must  use  new  and 
other  terms  to  make  that  clear  let  us  do  so. 
We  are  not  saving  terms  but  saving  men. 
And  a  saved  life  is  rather  more  than  a  saved 
feeling  or  a  saved  thought.  Christian  salva- 
tion must  never  mean  less  than  a  saved  per- 
sonality. 

Salvation  as  seen  in  the  School  of  Christ 
relates  to  the  life  from  which  and  the  life  to 
which  a  man  is  saved.  Saved  from  sin, 
saved  for  life — Christ  knew  at  least  these 
two  prepositions.  His  whole  Gospel  does 
not  lie  merely  in  the  great  words:  "  He  shall 
save  His  people  from  their  sins."  It  is  seen 
also  in  the  transfer  of  powxr  and  capacity. 
Men  bent  on  catching  fish  became  fishers 
of  men,  men  bent  on  making  money  kept 
their  old  powder  and  used  it  for  treasures  in 
heaven.  He  seized  men  at  their  strongest 
point,  often  perverted  and  astray ;  men  using 


90  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

up  mighty  power  for  wrong  ends.  He  took 
the  sin  out  of  their  power,  the  wrong  out  of 
their  purposes,  changed  their  objective,  gave 
strength  something  adequate  to  work  on, 
magnified,  exalted,  crowned,  multipHed  their 
master  motives  and  capacities,  showed  them 
new  possibiUties  in  themselves,  until  the  old 
life  looked  bad  and  the  old  strength  looked 
good,  and  by  repentance  and  faith  men 
turned  away  from  evil  and  entered  into  the 
new  and  living  way,  and  by  communion  and 
obedience  they  walked  up  on  the  shining 
heights  of  usefulness,  redeemed  personalities, 
sin's  power  broken,  sin's  guilt  forgiven,  men 
come  to  themselves  by  Jesus  Christ  for  life's 
divine-human  uses.  I  have  allowed  some 
theological  terms  to  slip  in  here,  but  I  take 
them  all  out  as  I  ask  again :  "  What  did 
Jesus  Christ  propose  to  do  for  an  individual 
man  ?  "  There  is  no  place  to  learn  except  in 
the  School  of  Christ.  When  you  have  found 
out  the  total  effect  of  this  perfect  personality 
upon  other  personalities  you  will  have  dis- 
covered at  once  your  task  and  your  oppor- 
tunity. 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  91 

It  is  only  another  step  to  say  that  watching 
this  Master  of  ours  to  see  what  He  did  and 
proposed,  we  see  that  He  meant  to  provide 
and  did  provide  a  salvation  for  all  men.  For 
the  whole  man — that  is  individual ;  for  all 
men — that  is  universal.  That  He  expected 
all  men  to  be  saved  is  not  so  clear.  A 
schoolmaster  does  not  expect  the  entire 
community  to  become  wise.  The  provision 
is  made  for  universal  education — that  is  our 
glory.  Many  generations  have  died  and 
many  more  will  die  with  many  uneducated 
persons  in  them — that  is  our  grief  and 
shame.  I  think  the  heaviest  thing  about 
the  Cross  was  this, — that  while  our  Master 
was  carrying  it  for  all  men  He  knew  that 
many  would  ignore  what  He  was  doing. 
"  I  have  piped  and  ye  have  not  danced." 
"  How  often  I  would — and  ye  would  not." 
Nevertheless,  we  must  hold  fast  to  the  perfect 
work  of  our  Master.  It  was  perfect  for  each 
and  perfect  for  all.  There  are  two  heresies, 
both  of  them  bad.  One  denies  the  deity  of 
the  Person  of  Christ,  the  assertion  of  which 
is  supposed  to  be  a  kind  of  unfailing  and  in- 


92  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

fallible  test  of  orthodoxy.  The  other  stoutly 
asserts  the  deity  of  the  Person  of  Christ  and 
denies  the  divinty  of  His  work.  And  this  lat- 
ter passes  for  orthodoxy.  It  seems  to  me,  a 
student  in  Christ's  school,  to  be  neither 
orthodox  nor  respectable.  Into  that  ancient 
controversy  we  need  not  go  again,  but  si- 
lence cannot  be  construed  as  an  acceptance 
of  either  form  of  the  ancient  heresy. 

What  did  He  propose  to  do  for  the  rela- 
tions of  men  ? 

He  evidently  intended  to  rule  and  save 
men  not  only  in  themselves  but  also  in  their 
relations.  "  Christian  ethics  is  the  science 
of  living  well  with  one  another  according  to 
Christ."  A  new  gospel  has  arisen  in  our 
day,  the  gospel  of  social  redemption.  We 
have  a  new  evangelism,  the  evangelism  of 
society.  The  literature  of  the  subject  is  large 
and  stirring,  the  movement  compelling  and 
fascinating.  Men  have  always  been  in  dan- 
ger of  setting  one  thing  over  against  another. 
This  new  gospel  seems  so  good  that  some 
have  repudiated  the  old  gospel  of  individual 
redemption  as  outworn  and  futile.     The  old 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  93 

type  of  evangelist  seeks  the  salvation  of  the 
individual,  the  new  the  redemption  of  society. 
One  evangelist  emphasizes  personal  transfor- 
mation, the  other  social  regeneration.  One 
rejoices,  and  thinks  he  rejoices  with  the  angels 
over  one  sinner  that  repents  ;  the  other  builds 
bonfires  when  one  boodler  is  put  in  jail.  One 
seeks  to  get  men  ready  by  conversion  and 
sanctification  for  a  far-ofi  kingdom  which  is 
yet  to  come  ;  the  other  tries  to  create  now  a 
kingdom  for  men  who  are  here.  And  these 
men  work  apart  rather  than  together,  which 
shows  that  neither  is  a  graduate  from  the 
School  of  Christ.  Each  has  been  a  special 
student.  They  stayed  just  long  enough  or 
studied  just  hard  enough  to  get  part  of  the 
truth.  They  have  learned  the  shibboleth 
which  suits  them.  But  our  Master  had  no 
shibboleths.  He  did  not  set  one  service 
over  against  another.  It  grieved  Him  that 
the  rich  young  ruler  turned  away  without 
entering  into  life,  and  it  grieved  Him  that 
Jerusalem  refused  to  be  saved.  Indeed,  His 
interview  with  that  young  man  covers  this 
whole    point :     Keep    the     commandments, 


94  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

which  are  both  personal  and  social  in  their 
bearing ;  Sell  what  you  have  and  give  to  the 
poor,  which  will  be  good  for  you  and  for  so- 
ciety ;  Come  and  follow  Me.  Thus  shall 
you  and  many  enter  into  life. 

I  am  seeking  to  interpret  the  intentions  of 
our  Master,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  He 
meant  to  make  both  men  and  society  good  ; 
that  He  meant  the  redeemed  man  to  help 
bring  in  the  redeemed  society  ;  and  meant  a 
redeemed  society  to  make  it  easier  for  men 
to  be  redeemed.  You  must  stay  in  the 
School  of  Christ  until  you  have  learned  the 
inclusiveness  of  His  mission  as  you  have 
learned  the  scope  of  His  teaching.  Then 
you  will  not  set  one  truth  over  against 
another,  nor  one  task  over  against  another. 
If  you  do  you  will  only  advertise  the  fact 
that  you  have  not  learned  the  Master's 
lesson,  or  the  more  shameful  fact  that  you 
think  you  can  improve  His  plans.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  there  are  any  electives  in 
the  School  of  Christ :  the  whole  course  is 
required.  The  elective  habit  has  been  over- 
worked.    Here  everything  is  essential   and 


TO   SEE   WHAT   HE   DOES  95 

nothing  is  to  be  omitted.     All  the  teachings 
and  the  whole  program  must  be  mastered. 

The  Master  sought  to  perform  two  great 
functions.     As  one  has  said  : 

"There  are  two  great  entities  in 
human  life — the  human  soul  and  the 
human  race — and  religion  is  to  save 
both.  The  soul  is  to  seek  righteousness 
and  eternal  life  ;  the  race  is  to  seek  right- 
eousness and  the  kingdom  of  God. 

'*  The  mischief  begins  when  the  Church 
makes  herself  the  end.  She  does  not 
exist  for  her  own  sake ;  she  is  simply  a 
working  organization  to  create  the 
Christian  life  in  individuals  and  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  human  society." 

*•  The  first  word  of  His  teaching  is  charac- 
ter, the  second  is  love."  No  one  else  has 
ever  said  Father  in  such  filial  accents  or 
brother  in  such  a  fraternal  tone.  No  one 
else  ever  laid  hold  of  the  roots  of  character 
and  the  relations  of  life  as  Jesus  did.  His 
program  for  a  man  is  enough  to  prove  His 
deity.  His  program  for  society  surpasses  all 
the  wars  of  all  the  ages  as  an  appeal  to  high 
manhood.     Salvation  as   a   simple  personal 


96  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

privilege  does  not  mean  much,  but  salvation 
for  service  sets  men  to  walking  up  the  low- 
hill  with  the  Master  Himself.  The  student 
weeps  with  Him  over  Jerusalem,  New  York 
and  Chicago,  and  leaps  to  His  side  as  He 
starts  up  the  hill  with  His  cross.  This 
makes  a  program  which  appeals  to  big 
energies  and  vital  capacities. 

Men  like  to  do  things,  and  to  be  related 
to  things  that  are  being  done,  particularly 
on  a  large  scale.  If  you  had  been  young 
— a  man  of  thirty  say — there  in  the  syna- 
gogue, dear,  sleepy,  old  synagogue,  the  day 
Jesus  announced  His  personal  and  social 
program  in  the  words  of  Isaiah,  what  would 
you  have  done  ?  You  would  have  been  on 
your  feet  in  a  minute,  with  a  cheer  on  your 
lips,  because  a  man  with  a  program,  an 
appeal  to  the  imagination,  an  outlet  for 
energy,  a  scope  for  activity  stood  there 
before  you.  I  can  hardly  read  it  or  think  of 
it  now  without  wanting  to  get  outdoors,  to 
shout  for  sheer  joy  that  such  a  chance  exists 
in  the  world.  Once  I  saw  a  drum  corps 
marching   down  the  street,  leading  a  com- 


TO  SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  97 

pany  of  old  soldiers  to  a  reunion.  The 
drum  corps  had  seen  service.  The  company 
had  in  it  a  cripple  or  two  and  a  tattered  flag. 
It  is  more  than  thirty  years  now  since  I  saw 
those  marching  heroes  but  the  sensation 
abides.  Something  like  it  comes  again  as  I 
read  these  words  from  the  synagogue.  But 
the  whole  story  for  us  now  is  that  by  every 
avenue  He  meant  to  approach  a  man  that 
He  might  save  the  whole  man,  and  that  a 
saved  man  might  give  humanity  a  chance  in 
a  saved  society. 

Somewhere  along  about  this  time  we  dis- 
cover that  He  meant  to  do  things  for  some- 
body besides  the  Jews  and  for  some  places 
besides  Jewish  cities  and  the  Jewish  nation. 
He  meant  to  save  a  man — that  is  personal. 
He  meant  to  save  a  town — that  is  social. 
He  meant  to  save  the  world — that  is  what 
we  call  missionary.  The  plan  enlarges  until 
it  stirs  our  hearts.  Pretty  soon  you  are 
liable  to  hear  martial  music,  to  see  flying 
banners  and  to  catch  the  vision  of  God's 
majestic  march  over  continents  and  through 
centuries.     There  will  be  thrones  and  crowns 


98  CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

and  sceptres  flashing  before  your  eyes  if  you 
will  only  open  them.  There  will  be  royal 
robes  and  marching  armies,  new  acts  of  the 
apostles,  nations  born  in  a  day,  the  coming 
of  the  kingdom.  We  are  out  in  the  middle 
of  the  stream  and  its  waters  wash  all  shores. 
His  plan  included  a  saved  man,  a  saved 
society,  a  saved  world.  Simply  reciting 
those  words  makes  the  blood  run  fast. 

How  did  He  mean  to  accomplish  all  this  ? 
With  the  minimum  of  things  and  the  maxi- 
mum of  personality.  He  did  not  visit  all 
places  to  try  to  do  everything  Himself.  He 
worked  upon  men  until  they  were  trans- 
formed and  themselves  became  transforming 
forces.  Thus  does  the  university  extend  its 
power.  It  takes  a  raw  boy,  works  him  over 
into  a  Christian  scholar,  and  sets  him  down 
somewhere  in  the  midst  of  other  rawness  to 
repeat  the  work  that  has  been  wrought  upon 
him.  Many  and  precious  names  rise  to  our 
lips  as  we  sit  here  to-day,  men  of  all  schools, 
but  chiefly  of  the  School  of  Christ.  They 
came  in  at  His  word,  they  companied  with 
Him,  hearing  what  He  said,  seeing  what  He 


TO   SEE  WHAT  HE   DOES  99 

did,   learning  what   He  was.     The   process 
goes  on  forever.     They  are  true  pupils  still. 

One  final  word  clamours  for  utterance. 
Those  first  students  in  that  School  got  a 
keen  sense  of  our  Master's  adequacy  and 
sufficiency.  Here  it  sometimes  seems  to  me 
is  our  most  dangerous  and  most  prevalent 
modern  heresy,  a  doubt  as  to  whether  Christ 
is  able.  We  know  that  He  is  admirable  and 
we  rapturously  say  so,  but  we  have  not  quite 
such  a  sure  sense  of  His  almightiness.  One 
of  my  old  teachers  always  prayed  that  we 
might  be  saved  with  the  power  of  an  endless 
life.  I  find  myself  often  repeating  the  prayer. 
Our  fathers  were  not  always  certain  of  God's 
goodness,  but  they  never  doubted  His  om- 
nipotence. We  have  recovered  the  truth  of 
His  kindness  and  lost  somewhat  of  the  sense 
of  His  supremacy.  Now  in  Christ's  presence 
let  us  get  again  the  zest  and  triumphant  note 
of  the  early  days.  The  first  disciples  were 
poor  and  not  very  numerous,  but  they  had 
the  confidence  of  world-conquest  in  their 
blood.  Their  faith  was  the  victory  that  over- 
came worlds. 


lOO  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

I  cannot  go  on.  Here  the  case  stands: 
He  entered  into  a  commanding  program. 
His  ordinary  conduct  set  life  flowing  afresh 
in  dried  up  channels.  His  deeds  revealed 
His  character  and  bore  upon  His  program. 
He  took  men  and  transformed  them.  We 
have  seen  it  going  on.  He  touched  char- 
acter with  power,  brought  light  into  dark- 
ness, truth  to  ignorance,  health  to  sickness, 
courage  to  timidity.  He  took  all  life  into 
His  grasp.  He  threw  His  love  over  all  rela- 
tions. He  carried  the  wide  world  in  His 
heart  and  on  His  cross.  And  He  did  it  all 
like  a  Lord.  Rise,  let  us  be  going.  For 
there  are  greater  works  for  us  to  do. 


LECTURE  III 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER : 
TO    LEARN    WHAT    HE    IS 


LECTURE  III 

CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER:  TO 
LEARN  WHAT  HE  IS 

THE  master's  truth,  the  master's  pro- 
gram, the  master  himself :  these 
are  the  fundamental  factors  in  any 
curriculum  or  any  true  education.  Each  is 
essential,  as  I  have  tried  to  make  clear,  but 
acquaintance  with  the  teacher  is  the  best 
thing  one  gets  at  school  if  the  teacher  hap- 
pens to  be  a  great  personality.  The  master 
is  always  the  most  important  feature  of  the 
institution.  The  teaching  may  be  elaborate 
and  wholesome ;  all  the  more  important, 
then,  the  personality  of  the  teacher.  The 
equipment  may  be  superb ;  all  the  more 
necessary  then  a  man  superior  to  his  equip- 
ment. The  achievements  may  be  unique 
and  unparalleled ;  all  the  better  then  to 
know  the  man  who  can  do  such  things.  We 
are  back  again  to-day  to  that  first  thrilling 

sentence  with  which  we  began  :   "  Jesus  call- 

103 


I04  CHOSEN  BY  THE   MASTER 

eth  unto  Him  whom  He  would  and  they 
came  unto  Him."  All  the  words  are  em- 
phatic. "Cut  any  of  them  and  they  will 
bleed."  These  are  personal  terms.  There  is 
nothing  abstract  or  academic  about  them. 
You  can  see  nothing  here  but  persons,  one 
and  a  dozen.  "  The  Leader  is  fairest  and  all 
are  divine." 

And  this  is  the  most  significant  thing  ever 
seen  on  our  planet,  a  group  around  a  Master. 
Buildings  are  secondary  in  education. 
Courses  of  study  are  also  secondary.  The 
man  is  primary.  The  president  of  an  old 
and  famous  college,  wishing  to  put  the  case 
in  its  true  order,  said :  '*  The  principal  thing 
in  this  world  is  a  fact.  The  principal  fact  is 
a  person.  The  principal  person  is  Jesus 
Christ."  "  He  appointed  twelve  that  they 
should  be  with  Him."  They  will  hear  what 
He  says  and  see  what  He  does,  but  best  of 
all  they  will  learn  what  He  is.  They  will 
come  to  know  Him.  That  will  set  them  into 
liberty ;  that  will  be  life  eternal.  They  will 
find  their  best  definition  of  Christianity  in 
the  person  of  Christ.     This  is  always  true. 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  105 

We  get  our  best  definition  of  every  best 
thing  in  terms  of  life  rather  than  in  terms  of 
the  dictionary.  Men  have  a  passion  for 
phrases.  Sometimes  men  have  seemed  more 
concerned  to  make  a  correct  definition  of  God 
than  to  obtain  right  acquaintance  with  Him. 
Some  men  have  a  passion  for  infallibihty  of 
statement.  Such  things  come  handy  in  ar- 
gument or  heresy  trials,  or  when  party  shib- 
boleths are  sorely  needed.  The  desire  for 
such  verbal  clearness  is  proper  and  the  abil- 
ity to  frame  exact  statements  is  a  precious 
possession.  It  is  valuable  in  the  Church's 
work  of  instruction.  The  making  of  defini- 
tions, creeds  and  catechisms  is  of  immense 
service.  We  owe  much  to  men  who  have 
framed  such  statements  as  this  historic  defi- 
nition of  God :  "  God  is  a  spirit,  infinite, 
eternal  and  unchangeable,  in  His  being,  wis- 
dom, power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness  and 
truth."  This  is  very  exact  and  precise.  It 
is  called  comprehensive  and  succinct,  and 
these  are  desirable  qualities  in  a  definition. 
But  what  would  poor  Philip  have  said  or 
thought  if  Jesus  had  used  a  phrase  like  that 


Io6  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

in  that  memorable  moment  when  Philip  said: 
"  Show  us  the  Father  "  ?  How  would  you  like 
to  substitute  it  for  the  words  :  *'  He  that  hath 
seen  Me  hath  seen  Him "  ?  Clearer  proof 
you  could  not  have  of  the  statement  that  we 
get  our  best  definition  in  terms  of  life  rather 
than  in  terms  of  the  dictionary.  That  is 
what  makes  that  group  of  the  one  and  the 
twelve  so  significant.  They  were  getting 
acquainted  with  Him.  This  is  what  makes 
the  modern  movement  in  theology,  the 
movement  towards  Christ,  so  significant  and 
valuable.  It  is  not  to  get  a  new  phrase  on 
our  lips,  nor  a  new  shibboleth  for  our  use. 
The  cry  ''Back  to  Christ"  may  become  just 
as  empty  as  any  other.  The  cry  "  On  with 
Christ"  may  become  just  as  much  a  party 
cry  as  any  other  phrase.  A  good  phrase  is 
better  than  a  bad  one.  A  good  definition  is 
worth  more  than  a  poor  one,  but  in  life  a 
phrase  from  which  the  personal  quality  has 
gone  is  no  longer  good.  The  person  must 
be  in  the  statement  or  it  has  become  a  dead 
statement.  It  is  the  living  Christ  who  keeps 
the  doctrine  of  Christ  a  living  doctrine,  His 


TO   LEARN  WHAT   HE  IS  I07 

truth  a  living  truth.  *'  The  words  that  I 
speak,  they  are  spirit,  they  are  life,"  but  they 
are  spirit  and  life  not  alone  because  they  are 
correct  words,  but  also  because  He  is  ever- 
more in  them.  St.  Paul  knew  what  he  was 
about  when  he  exhorted  young  Timothy  to 
*'  Hold  the  pattern  of  sound  words,  which 
thou  hast  heard  from  me,  in  faith  and  love 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  "  (2  Tim.  i.  13).  We 
are  just  as  liable  to  fall  under  the  dominion 
of  a  catchword  as  anybody ;  just  as  liable 
as  any  one  to  fancy  that  the  knowledge  of  a 
phrase  is  equivalent  to  an  acquaintance  with 
a  person,  or  that  the  repetition  of  the  phrase 
indicates  such  acquaintance.  And  this  is  the 
real  value  in  the  cry  *'  Back  to  Christ,"  that 
it  may  actually  vitalize  our  truth  about  Christ 
by  the  bringing  of  Christ  into  our  truth.  It 
takes  a  person  to  keep  a  phrase  alive.  In 
Christianity  this  is  peculiarly  true.  Person- 
ality is  at  a  premium  here.  The  relation  of 
Christ's  person  to  what  He  said  and  what 
He  did  is  manifestly  unique.  We  have  felt 
that  all  along.  The  place  of  His  own  person 
in  the  body  of  His  doctrines  and  His  deeds 


Io8  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

is  of  prime  consequence.  A  lot  of  those 
things  He  said  cannot  be  understood  unless 
we  also  understand  Him.  He  is  not  only 
the  centre  and  life  of  His  own  teaching,  He 
is  the  key  to  it.  You  cannot  take  Him  out 
and  leave  His  teaching.  We  must  know 
Him.  We  cannot  graduate  into  highest 
usefulness  until  we  do. 

Now  how  shall  we  arrive  at  this  knowledge 
of  Him?  How  is  an  acquaintance  with 
Christ  to  be  obtained?  The  classic  New 
Testament  passage  is  the  one  found  in  the 
sixteenth  chapter  of  Matthew.  The  scene  is 
Caesarea  Philippi,  but  it  might  as  well  be 
Nashville  or  Chicago.  His  public  ministry 
was  somewhat  more  than  a  year  old.  He 
wanted  to  know  how  far  the  public  had  gone 
towards  understanding  Him.  He  wanted  also 
to  know  how  well  His  disciples  understood 
Him.  Had  they  caught  in  any  measure  the 
secret  of  their  Master's  own  nature  ?  So  He 
asks  first :  '*  Who  do  men  say  that  I  am  ?  " 
You  know  the  confused,  helpless  replies. 
"  Some  say  John  the  Baptist,  some  Elijah, 
others  Jeremiah."     Others,  not  to  be  caught 


TO   LEARN   WHAT  HE   IS  109 

by  a  definite  answer,  look  wise  as  folks  do 
when  about  to  take  refuge  in  vagueness  and 
generalities,  and  say  that  **  He  is  one  of  the 
prophets."  This  is  the  usual  result  when 
they,  the  vast,  uninformed  tJieyy  give  their 
opinions  out  of  their  ignorance.  Opinions 
of  course  they  had  to  have,  whether  they  had 
any  adequate  information  or  not.  That  is 
what  Berkeley  said  :  *'  Few  men  will  think ; 
all  men  will  have  opinions."  And  this  con- 
fusion is  the  natural  product.  It  all  sounds 
so  modern  that  it  must  have  come  from  the 
daily  papers  rather  than  from  Matthew's  old 
record. 

If  now  the  men  whom  He  had  appointed 
to  be  with  Him  do  not  make  better  answer 
than  this  He  may  well  despair.  For  the  one 
thing  a  teacher  cannot  endure  is  that  his  dis- 
ciples shall  not  understand  him.  If  our 
Master  was  ever  anxious  I  fancy  it  must  have 
been  when  He  asked  His  disciples  what  they 
thought  and  waited  to  see  whether  they  had 
at  all  grasped  the  meaning  of  His  life  and 
the  significance  of  His  person.  Peter  does 
not  always  appear  to  good  advantage.     His 


no  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

remarks  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration 
and  on  some  other  occasions  were  rather  un- 
happy. But  he  has  a  very  high  average. 
He  could  risk  his  reputation  on  his  reply  at 
Caesarea  Philippi  and  his  address  at  Pente- 
cost. Indeed,  those  two  utterances  would 
float  a  good  deal  of  talk  which  was  not  in 
itself  up  to  their  own  level.  What  do  you 
think  the  Master's  emotions  were  when  for 
himself  and  the  rest  Peter  burst  out  with 
that  passionate  and  adoring  cry,  "  Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God"  ?  It  is 
a  clear  note  in  the  general  uncertainty.  Life 
answers  back  to  life.  Life  has  laid  hold  of 
the  truth  in  life.  The  fisherman  has  seized 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  The  rock  is  under 
his  feet,  the  rock  for  men,  the  rock  for  the 
Church.  It  is  all  there  :  the  person  confessed 
because  apprehended  ;  the  person  confessing 
what  by  experience  he  had  found  out ;  the 
personal  confession  of  person  by  person,  not 
as  the  condition  of  getting  in  but  as  the  result 
of  being  in  the  School  of  Christ.  How  had 
Peter  arrived  at  that  ?  How  had  the  crowd 
missed  it  ?     He  struck  the  centre.     They  had 


TO  LEARN   WHAT  HE   IS  III 

Struck,  or  only  approached,  the  edge.  Of 
course  I  know  the  familiar  reply.  It  is  already 
on  your  lips :  "  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not 
revealed  it  unto  you,  but  My  Father  which  is 
in  heaven."  But  there  is  no  magic  and  not 
much  mystery  in  that  statement.  It  is  the 
kind  of  a  statement  which  is  easily  translated 
into  experience.  It  is  not  up  in  the  air,  but 
on  the  ground  where  men  are.  It  means 
just  this  :  The  way  to  truth  is  the  way  of 
life.  God  has  made  known  what  His  Son  is 
to  the  men  who  have  been  living  with  Him, 
listening  to  Him,  watching  Him,  obeying 
Him,  serving  Him  as  occasion  offered,  com- 
ing slowly  to  love  Him.  "  His  Messiahship 
was  not  a  declaration  on  His  part  but  a  dis- 
covery on  theirs,  an  inference  to  which,  under 
the  illumination  of  the  spirit  they  were 
inevitably  driven  by  what  they  had  expe- 
rienced in  His  presence."  This  accurate 
knowledge  is  obtained  not  by  specula- 
tion at  a  distance  nor  controversy  about 
Him  nor  wonder  while  apart  from  Him. 
Accurate  knowledge  of  Him  is  obtained  by 
living  with  Him.     The  true  view  of  Christ  is 


112  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

reserved  for  those  and  given  to  those  most 
devoted  and  most  susceptible.  Life  with 
Christ  is  the  basis  of  such  a  revelation  of 
Christ.  They  might  have  asked  at  that  point, 
"  Why  is  it,  or  how  is  it,  that  Thou  dost  mani- 
fest Thyself  unto  us  and  not  unto  the  world  ?  " 
The  saint  obtains  the  clear  vision  denied  to 
others.  These  men,  being  purified  in  heart, 
saw  what  Jesus  was.  It  was  not  the  result 
of  intellectual  superiority.  This  accurate  in- 
sight did  not  depend  upon  an  argument,  it 
rested  upon  an  experience.  This  discernment 
of  who  and  what  the  Son  of  Man  was,  was 
not  required  of  them  at  the  entrance  to  the 
School  of  Christ.  They  did  not  get  in  be- 
cause they  knew  ;  they  came  to  know  in 
consequence  of  being  in  and  of  being  obedi- 
ent. The  possession  of  this  knowledge  is  not 
an  entrance  requirement ;  it  is  a  requirement 
for  graduation.  ''This  knowledge,'*  a  recent 
writer  declares  truly,  **  comes  in  virtue  of  the 
impression  made  on  us  by  all  that  He  is  in 
the  soul's  private  life,  by  what  we  learn  from 
day  to  day  of  His  personality.  His  words.  His 
deeds,  that  we  are  brought  to  confess  Him  as 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  1 13 

the  Son  of  God.  That  is  to  say  this  doctrine 
is  not  the  porch  through  which  we  must  first 
pass  as  we  enter  the  temple  of  Christian  dis- 
cipleship  ;  it  may  rather  be  the  last  and 
holiest  shrine  to  which  loyal  obedience  and 
quickened  insight  soon  or  late  will  lead." 

These  men,  Peter  chief  among  them,  lived 
themselves  into  this  doctrine.  This  royal 
doctrine,  this  transcendent  insight  came  to 
men  who  were  living  in  the  royal  way, 
keeping  daily  step  with  the  best  they  knew. 
God  has  no  disclosures  to  others.  He  is 
silent  to  them.  For  those  who  stand  aloof 
Jesus  is  Elijah  or  the  Baptist  or  one  of  the 
prophets.  These  dwell  in  the  din  and  jargon. 
These  are  spoken  of  as  ''  they  "  or  **  some." 
Their  opinions  have  that  kind  of  value.  The 
others  join  in  the  clear  and  adoring  confes- 
sion. Life  with  Jesus  gets  the  vision  of  the 
truth  about  Jesus. 

I  have  called  this  the  classic  episode,  not 
that  it  gives  a  complete  estimate  of  what 
Jesus  was,  but  that  it  indicates  the  way  of 
arriving  at  a  true  estimate.  It  is  essentially 
Baconian,  Wesleyan    and    scientific.     Cole- 


114     CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

ridge  said  :  "If  you  want  to  be  persuaded  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  try  it."  If  you  want 
to  know  what  Jesus  was  live  with  Him. 

*' First  seek  the  Saviour  out,  and  dwell 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  His  roof, 
Till  thou  hast  scanned  His  features  well 
And  known  Him  for  the  Christ  by  proof : 
Such  proof  as  they  are  sure  to  find 
Who  spend  with  Him  their  happy  days, 
Clean  hands  and  a  self-ruling  mind 
Ever  in  tune  for  love  and  praise. 
Then  potent  with  the  spell  of  Heaven, 
Go  and  thine  erring  brother  gain. 
Entice  him  home  to  be  forgiven 
Till  he  too  sees  his  Saviour  plain." 

— Keble,  Christian  Year. 

Those  first  men  knew  Christ  from  liv- 
ing with  Him,  hearing  what  He  said  and 
seeing  what  He  did.  Part  of  it  they  wrote 
down, — only  a  small  part  of  it,  we  may  well 
believe.  But  just  as  their  creed  came  out  of 
their  companionship,  so  their  records  grew 
out  of  their  life  with  Jesus.  John  thought 
his  experiences  and  fellowships  over  a  little 
longer  and  a  good  deal  more  intensely  than 
the  others,  but  his  story  when  written  came 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  II5 

out  of  his  experience.  That  is  why  we  can 
get  back  through  the  records  concerning 
Jesus  to  a  vital  acquaintance  with  Jesus. 
The  experience  became  a  record.  Thus  does 
life  always  tend  to  become  literature.  Then 
through  the  record  later  generations  get  back 
into  the  life.  Thus  does  holy  literature  ren- 
der its  true  and  noble  service  to  life.  Those 
frank,  unaffected,  engaging  records  are  infi- 
nitely precious  to  us  for  this  double  reason, — 
that  they  record  so  perfectly  the  life  of  Jesus 
and  His  disciples  and  keep  open  for  men  a 
perpetual  way  to  acquaintance  with  Jesus. 

The  early  problem  has  changed  somewhat 
for  us.  It  would  seem  easy  enough  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  Jesus  when  the  dis- 
ciples had  the  chance  to  be  with  Him  daily. 
No  such  opportunity  is  ours  as  was  theirs. 
We  must  somehow  solve  the  difficult  prob- 
lem of  *'  making  an  historic  personality  a 
real  personality."  His  personality  revealed 
itself  and  its  qualities  in  time  and  place. 
How  now  can  this  person  once  living  in  time 
and  place  be  made  a  vital  fact,  the  supreme 
fact  in  the  religious  life  of  to-day  ?    The  vast 


Il6  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

modern  effort  to  discover  Jesus  as  He  lived 
and  moved  in  His  historic  setting  has  not 
added  to  the  ease  of  clear  and  simple  faith. 
How  can  the  Christ  of  history  become  the 
Christ  of  experience?  We  must  somehow 
come  to  know  Him,  not  simply  to  know 
about  Him.  The  problem  just  referred  to 
does  not  exist  at  all  for  some,  and  for  others 
the  solution  varies.  A  recent  very  fresh  vol- 
ume of  lectures  points  out  that  F.  W.  New- 
man simply  and  completely  **  denied  that  the 
personality  of  Christ  had  any  significance  for 
his  religious  life.  .  .  .  Religion  for  him 
was  a  direct  communion  between  God  and 
the  soul  unmediated  by  any  historic  medium." 
Hegel  "dissolved  the  personality  of  Christ 
into  the  great  idea  that  He  embodied  self- 
sacrifice."  Dale  and  others  assume  an  atti- 
tude of  independence  of  and  indifference  to 
all  historical  and  literary  criticism. 

But  all  this  seems  unsatisfactory.  The 
Christ  of  experience  cannot  last  long,  would 
not  have  lasted  so  long,  but  for  the  historical 
Christ.  The  Christ  idea  is  permanent  only 
because  of  the  Christ  fact.     The  beauty  of 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  II7 

the  idea  will  not  save  it.  Nothing  will  save 
it,  except  the  fact  itself.  In  all  ages  the 
problem  is  the  same — the  problem  of  really- 
knowing  Him.  How  can  one  come  to  have 
such  assurance  as  Horace  Bushnell's  when  he 
said  :  ''  I  know  Jesus  Christ  better,  far  better, 
than  I  know  any  man  in  Hartford  .  .  . 
and  I  think  if  He  came  along  this  way  He 
would  arrest  Himself  and  say,  *  Here's  a  man 
I  know.'  " 

Or  how  can  we  repeat  the  experience  of 
Phillips  Brooks :  "  All  experience  comes  to 
be  but  more  and  more  the  pressure  of  His 
(Christ's)  life  on  ours.  It  cannot  come  by 
one  flash  of  light,  or  one  convulsive  event. 
It  comes  without  haste  and  without  rest  in 
this  perpetual  living  of  our  Ufe  with  Him. 
And  all  our  history,  of  inner  and  outer  life, 
of  the  changes  of  circumstances,  or  the 
changes  of  thought,  gets  its  meaning  and 
value  from  this  constantly  growing  relation 
to  Christ.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  personal 
this  grows  to  me.  He  is  here.  He  knows 
me  and  I  know  Him.  It  is  no  figure  of 
speech.     It  is  the  reallest  thing  in  the  world. 


Il8  CHOSEN  BY   THE  MASTER 

And  every  day  makes  it  realler.  And  one 
wonders  with  delight  what  it  will  grow  to  as 
the  years  go  on  "  ?  Or  how  may  we  still  say : 
**  Our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ"?  Or  how  may  we 
still  say  :  "  I  know  Him  "  ? 

In  this  study  of  ours  to-day  permit  me  to 
say  that  we  can  come  to  a  real  acquaintance 
with  Christ  only  by  a  union  of  several  proc- 
esses. One  way  alone  will  not  bring  it 
about.  We  must  become  acquainted  with 
Him  through  His  open  and  manifest 
methods,  through  His  clearly  revealed  spirit, 
through  His  character  as  disclosed  by  Him- 
self, and  particularly  through  the  process  of 
living  with  Him  and  living  like  Him. 

The  study  of  the  methods  of  Jesus  is  in  its 
first  stages  disappointing.  We  are  chiefly 
impressed  at  the  outset  with  the  meagreness 
of  the  materials  for  our  guidance  in  any  of 
life's  details.  Suppose  a  modern  pastor 
goes  to  the  Gospels  to  study  the  methods  of 
Jesus.  His  first  experience  will  dishearten 
him.  There  is  almost  no  light  at  all  on  the 
details    of    our   modern   pastoral   problems. 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  II9 

How  many  hours  daily  did  He  study? 
How  many  hours  did  He  call?  How  did 
He  conduct  a  meeting  ?  How  did  He 
manage  a  church?  Or  how  was  He 
managed  by  one  ?  City  pastors  and  country 
pastors  alike  look  in  vain  for  a  detailed  plan 
which  will  save  them  the  trouble  of  making 
one.  Indeed  a  pastor  in  our  modern  sense 
He  was  not  at  all.  He  had  no  regular  con- 
gregation, no  stated  hours  for  public  serv- 
ices, no  conference  relations,  no  visiting  list, 
no  hours  for  study,  no  hours  for  calling.  In 
short,  He  had  in  His  life  none  of  the  out- 
standing features  of  a  modern  pastor's  life. 
He  was  not  an  evangelist  in  our  modern 
sense  of  that  term.  He  held  nothing  like 
special  meetings  with  their  altars,  their  stir- 
ring music,  their  exhortations,  their  urgent 
appeals,  their  mothers'  meetings,  men's  meet- 
ings and  children's  meetings,  their  cards 
and  conversions,  their  counting  of  converts. 
He  came  much  nearer  to  our  modern  con- 
ception of  a  teacher  than  of  either  a  pastor 
or  an  evangelist.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
externals  of  His  life  in  common  with  the  life 


I20      CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

of  a  modern  bishop,  presiding  elder,  editor, 
secretary  or  college  president.  It  would  be 
an  affectation  for  any  one  of  us  to  wear 
sandals  or  seamless  robes  because  He  did. 

Is  there,  then,  no  significance  in  the  study 
of  His  methods  ?  Much,  every  way.  First 
we  shall  learn  that  good  methods  are  vastly 
better  than  bad  ones,  that  methods  are  not 
automatic  ;  that  the  knowledge  of  another's 
methods  will  not  enable  us  to  repeat  another's 
work  or  achievements ;  that  there  is  a  fatal 
bondage  to  methods  into  which  bondage 
many  men  readily  fall  ;  and  that  there  is  no 
hard  and  fast  way  of  doing  a  thing  and  that 
the  main  thing  is  to  do  it.  The  routine  of 
life  is  wholly  lacking  in  Christ,  the  vitalities 
and  realities  are  all  present.  The  religious 
mechanic  is  either  disappointed  in  Jesus  or 
misuses  Him.  The  mechanic  has  consum- 
mate skill  in  missing  the  essence  of  a  situa- 
tion and  discovering  only  its  accidents.  He 
would  lay  great  stress  upon  the  well,  the 
wayside,  the  time  of  day,  the  distance  from 
the  city  and  all  that.  He  would  miss  the 
supreme  thing  which  is  that  two  personalities 


TO   LEARN  WHAT   HE  IS  121 

get  together  and  the  accidents  of  their  meet- 
ing are  all  made  to  minister  to  its  outcome. 
The  outcome  is  the  principal  thing.  Let  us 
not  be  in  the  least  discouraged  that  so  much 
is  lacking ;  let  us  be  glad  that  so  much  is 
present. 

In  Phillips  Brooks'  lecture  on  biography  as 
originally  delivered  to  a  small  group  of  men 
he  pointed  out  the  highest  service  that  one 
person  could  render  to  another  in  terms  like 
these :  One  person  is  a  chemical  substance 
which  if  lighted  would  burn  blue,  another 
would  burn  red,  another  white.  The  value 
of  a  biography  is  to  set  you  on  fire  so  you 
will  burn  whatever  your  colour.  The  change 
of  substance  is  another  question.  Many  a 
man  has  consumed  himself  trying  to  work 
out  the  mechanics  of  Jesus'  method  and  has 
failed  utterly  to  acquire  the  inspiring  passion 
of  Jesus  to  do  things  by  any  fair  method. 
The  life  has  not  been  lighted. 

I  am  compelled  at  this  point  to  make  a 
confession.  When  I  began  the  preparatory 
study  for  this  course  of  addresses  I  had  in 
mind   for   this   one   chiefly  the   methods   of 


122      CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

Jesus'  activities.  These  I  meant  to  work  out 
as  well  as  possible.  But  the  more  I  studied 
the  theme  the  more  clear  became  the  convic- 
tion that  we  are  over-inclined,  I  am  over- 
inclined,  to  emphasize  the  methods  of  a  man's 
activities.  I  made  a  careful  outline  at  one 
stage  of  the  preparation  and  tried  to  work  it 
out  on  the  original  plan.  It  would  not  work 
out.  The  methods  of  Christ's  activities,  of 
any  great  man's  activities,  are  important,  but 
they  are  not  to  be  studied  apart  from  the 
methods  of  His  life.  We  must  know  how 
He  did  what  He  did,  but  we  must  chiefly 
know  how  He  was  what  He  was.  How  men 
prepare  their  sermons  is  a  proper  question. 
But  it  is  not  quite  so  searching  as  the  ques- 
tion how  they  come  to  be,  and  how  they  con- 
tinue to  be,  the  kind  of  men  that  can  make 
such  sermons  by  any  process.  Perhaps  we 
can  keep  the  distinction  clearly  before  us  by 
the  use  of  the  two  phrases  :  (i)  The  methods 
of  the  life  and  (2)  the  methods  of  the  activities. 
What  do  we  mean  by  the  methods  of  our 
Master's  life?  There  are  really  only  two 
supreme  questions  for  personality.     One  is 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  123 

the  question  of  meeting  evil,  the  other  the 
question  of  making  Ufe  right  and  keeping  it 
right.  They  are  actually  only  one  question 
in  their  personal  working  and  outcome. 
They  might  be  stated  in  another  way  thus : 
The  method  of  meeting  temptation  and  the 
method  of  maintaining  the  life  of  God  in  the 
soul.  These  are  the  deepest  interests  in  a 
man's  life.  You  can  learn  all  the  details  of 
our  noble  calling,  or  any  noble  calling,  and 
still  fail.  You  can  master  the  methods  of 
our  Master's  activities,  personal  and  social, 
and  still  utterly  fail.  The  secrets  of  being 
lie  deeper  than  the  secrets  of  the  trade.  The 
methods  of  the  life  lie  under  and  behind  the 
methods  of  the  activity.  **  In  Him  was  life 
and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men." 

And  this  life  of  our  Master  is  especially 
luminous  in  these  two  essential  particulars. 
Temptation  plays  a  very  large  part  in  the  life 
of  every  man,  every  good  man  as  well  as 
every  bad  one.  It  played  a  large  part  in  the 
life  of  Jesus.  The  man  with  a  noble  mission, 
a  holy  purpose  and  a  lofty  character,  meets  a 
peculiar  set  of  temptations  which  assail  him 


124  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

at  the  point  of  his  holy  purpose.  Jesus  did 
not  escape  that  test  though  He  taught  us 
to  pray  that  we  might  be  dehvered.  Per- 
haps the  famihar  account  of  what  we  call 
the  temptation  will  open  the  subject  to  us 
though  it  will  not  exhaust  it.  That  episode 
did  not  end  our  Master's  conflict  with  evil. 
*'  The  enemy  was  beaten  then  but  not  des- 
troyed." 

We  need  not  describe  it  again.  Nor  is  it 
necessary  to  consider  the  meaning  of  the  ex- 
perience of  Christ  on  the  mountain  of  temp- 
tation for  the  man  in  the  street,  struggling 
with  vulgar  evil ;  nor  the  outworn  question 
of  the  reality  of  Christ's  temptation ;  nor 
that  other  even  more  outworn  question  of 
the  literalness  of  it ;  nor  the  confusing,  hair- 
splitting distinction  between  the  place  of  the 
divine  and  human  in  Him  during  the  fierce 
struggle.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  there  are 
in  the  story  lessons  for  the  man  in  the  street, 
but  they  lie  to  one  side  of  our  purpose ;  that 
the  life  of  our  Master  became  involved  at  the 
point  of  His  noble  mission  and  high  purpose ; 
and  that  neither  for  Him  nor  for  any  other 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  1 25 

soul  does  the  divine  so  shield  the  human  as 
to  make  temptation  a  mimic  warfare.  Such 
a  conflict  is  inherent  in  any  life  consecrated 
to  supreme  tasks  ;  and  the  holier  the  life  and 
purpose  the  more  inevitable  the  struggle. 

Our  concern  is  with  the  story  of  Christ's 
temptation  as  its  various  features  bear  upon 
His  life-work  and  upon  His  personality  as 
the  basis  of  that  work ;  and  all  this  as  illu- 
minating for  us  these  two  fundamental  ques- 
tions :  how  to  keep  life  from  evil  and  how  to 
keep  life  strong  and  effective.  He  had  been 
baptized.  He  had  given  Himself  to  His 
high  task.  His  mission  and  life  stretched 
out  before  Him  as  do  ours.  He  like  us  must 
take  up  His  program  and  work  it  out.  He 
like  us  must  do  God's  will,  must  tell  men  the 
truth  of  God,  must  rid  the  world  of  evil,  must 
interpret  God  to  men,  must  sanctify  the 
world  in  truth.  For  all  this  He  like  us  must 
keep  Himself  fit.  He  like  us  must  ofTer 
Himself  up.  At  His  baptism  He  heard  the 
words,  **  Thou  art  My  Son."  His  course  is 
ruined  if  by  any  act  or  failure  of  His  He  ever 
ceases  to  hear  those  words.     There  at  the 


126      CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

Start  and  all  through,  for  Him  as  for  us,  three 
powerful  allurements  present  themselves.  If 
He  or  we  shall  walk  steadily  at  these  points, 
all  of  them,  we  shall  know  what  moral  vic- 
tory means.  These  are  the  questions  :  How 
will  He  use  divine  power?  How  will  He  use 
divine  promises?  How  will  He  win  the 
world  ?  A  selfish  use  of  divine  power,  a  reck- 
less test  of  divine  promises,  an  attempt  to 
win  the  world  by  going  over  to  it — at  any 
one  of  these  points  a  man,  a  good  man  even, 
may  break.  Or,  as  another  has  put  it, 
*'  Here  the  question  arose  what  kind  of  a 
Messiah  He  would  be.  Will  He  be  a  spec- 
tacular Messiah,  a  worldly  Messiah,  or  a  self- 
ish Messiah  ?  "  That  fairly  states  the  issue. 
If  He  had  broken  at  any  point  we  should 
have  had  no  Messiah  at  all.  At  some  one  of 
these  points  most  men  do  break.  To  resume 
our  school  figure,  it  would  not  be  easy  for  any 
of  us  to  pass  an  examination  on  these  three 
questions.  Few  men  of  great  power  keep  the 
current  of  their  power  always  turned  upon 
their  work  and  never  upon  their  advantage. 
There  are  many  who  ably  and  well  do  their 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  127 

work,  but  who  always  expect  personal  gain 
to  come  as  a  by-product.  Jesus  would  have 
spoiled  His  whole  program  by  the  use  of  His 
own  great  power  for  His  own  advantage. 
But  this  is  the  test :  Why  go  hungry  when 
you  can  make  bread  ?  Why  stay  in  this  ob- 
scure, uncomfortable  place  when  you  have 
the  power  to  improve  your  condition?  But 
the  current  is  sure  to  be  cut  off  at  last  if  one 
turns  it  in  the  wrong  direction.  If  Christ 
goes  to  using  His  divine  power  for  making 
bread  for  Himself  even  when  He  is  hungry, 
He  will  lose  the  power  to  make  bread  for  the 
multitudes  when  they  are  hungry.  The  di- 
vine power  in  one's  hand  must  be  turned  al- 
ways upon  one's  task,  never  upon  one's 
benefit. 

So  with  the  next  step  in  the  story.  An 
ambassador  is  tempted  to  make  a  display  of 
his  relation  to  the  government  behind  him. 
Has  it  not  promised  to  protect  him  in  a 
foreign  land  ?  Therefore  he  will  cast  himself 
down  from  the  tower  some  day  just  to  show 
what  his  government  can  do  for  him.  In- 
cidentally the  bystanders  will  gain  a  great 


128  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

impression   of   him   and   of   his   confidence. 
Does  he  not  owe  it  to  his  government,  es- 
pecially when  challenged,  to  prove  that  its 
promises  are  good  ?     Will  not  one  dramatic 
episode  bring  tremendous  results  ?     Will  not 
a  spectacular  display  of  faith  be  a  fine  thing 
for  the  kingdom?      In  Christ's  case  it  will 
give  God  such  a  chance  to  make  good  His 
word  and  to  show  how  He  can  and  will  take 
care  of  His  Son.     Let  us  answer  Tyndall's 
challenge  to  the  prayer  test.     It  will  be  an  ex- 
cellent  advertisement.     Hardly.     The   gov- 
ernment promises  to  protect  its  ambassador 
in  doing  his  duty.     The  promise  and  assist- 
ance of  God  are  for  those,  including  Christ, 
who  are  in  the  line  of  duty.     The  promises  do 
not  cover  advertising,  even  for  the  govern- 
ment.     God   does  not  care  for   the  adver- 
tising  even  of   His   promises.     Pretty  soon 
the     angels     will     come     and    minister    to 
this  tempted  Master,  but  if  He  goes  to  pre- 
suming and  parading,  to  making  vulgar  dis- 
play of  His  relations,  reckless  and  unwar- 
ranted use  of  God's  promises  the  angels  will 
be  very  scarce.     The  promises  are  for  use,  not 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE  IS  1 29 

for  display.  We  will  pray  for  the  sick  but  not 
to  show  the  power  of  our  prayers.  The  best 
advertisement  of  the  value  of  God's  promises 
is  their  power  to  bear  life's  weight.  Men  are 
always  tempted  to  make  a  professional  use 
of  God's  promises.  The  method  of  our 
Master  was  to  make  only  a  vital  use  of  them. 
Never  did  He  try  one  for  the  sake  of  testing 
it.  In  the  hour  of  need  He  never  hesitated 
to  throw  His  entire  weight  upon  God's  word. 
He  made  no  experiments,  He  failed  in  no 
duty.  He  trusted  God  by  walking  in  the 
path  of  obedience.  He  did  not  tempt  God 
by  walking  in  the  path  of  display.  He  de- 
pended on  the  angels  to  help  Him  while  He 
did  His  duty,  and  only  when  doing  it. 

At  these  two  essential  points  we  get  much 
light, — use  of  power,  relation  to  God's  prom- 
ises. It  is  good  to  be  in  Christ's  School  to 
learn  such  lessons.  There  is  still  a  third. 
The  drama  is  complete.  Every  great  per- 
sonality with  a  large  plan  of  life  will  pass 
through  these  three  experiences.  These  are 
the  essential  categories.  The  Redeemer 
must  go  through  like  the  rest.     What  power 


I30  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

have  I  and  how  shall  I  use  it  ?  Can  I  depend 
upon  God  ?  How  shall  I  fulfill  my  mission  ? 
The  nobler  one's  personality,  the  higher  one's 
relations,  the  loftier  one's  mission,  the  more 
certain  and  powerful  the  temptations  are. 
Tested  at  the  point  of  power,  at  the  point  of 
faith,  at  the  point  of  mission,  every  noble 
personality  will  be.  Men  are  not  attacked 
simply  at  their  weak  points.  These  are  not 
simply  shrewd  and  cunning  tactics  of  the 
Evil  One.  This  is  magnificent  strategy.  In 
the  fight  for  character  these  three  points  must 
be  captured  or  kept.  We  have  briefly  stud- 
ied two  of  them.  The  third  raises  the  ques- 
tion of  our  Master's  dearest  wish  and  its 
fulfillment.  He  came  to  win  the  world  back 
to  God.  To  this  end  everything  was  done 
and  endured.  Here  now  is  a  short  cut,  an 
easy  way.  He  can  win  the  world  by  going 
over  to  it,  or  by  making  an  alliance  with  it. 
That  plan  will  assure  success,  and  it  will 
avoid  a  hard  and  toilsome  schedule.  This  is 
wise  and  prudent.  The  other  is  heroic  and 
Quixotic.  This  is  practical  and  rational. 
The  other  is  visionary  and  academic.     Surely 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  I3I 

if  He  can  win  the  world  by  this  sensible 
alliance  it  will  be  well.  Why  make  it  so  hard 
when  it  can  be  so  easy  and  so  sure  ?  One 
of  the  ablest  religious  journals  of  our  day 
thus  states  the  case  :  **  As  Jesus  surveyed  the 
world  in  which  ascendency  was  to  be  won 
for  God,  He  could  not  but  see  what  a  tre- 
mendous power  was  wielded  in  it  by  evil.  It 
had  enormous  resources  at  its  disposal,  it  had 
made  its  own  vast  regions  of  human  life 
which  belonged  of  right  to  God  and  His 
Christ.  What  was  to  be  done  with  it  ?  If  it 
were  directly  challenged,  it  could  offer  an 
incalculable  and  merciless  resistance ;  was 
there  no  way  round  ?  Was  it  not  possible  to 
make  use  of  evil  somehow  ?  Was  there  not 
some  craft  or  policy  by  which  the  loan  of  it 
might  be  taken  for  a  time?  by  which  its 
right  to  exist,  temporarily  of  course  and 
under  conditions,  might  be  recognized,  so 
that  the  Son  of  God  might  profit  by  it  till  it 
became  practicable  for  Him  to  do  without  it  ? 
Jesus  saw  clearly  what  this  meant,  and  in 
seeing  it  He  overcame  the  Temptation  in  it. 
It  was  Satan  boasting  of  his  power,  and  ofier- 


132  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

ing  it  to  Him  on  terms  which  meant  the 
complete  frustration  of  His  caUing  from  the 
start.  In  the  passion  with  which  Jesus  repels 
this  temptation — Get  thee  behind  Me,  Satan 
— we  seem  to  hear  Him  saying  to  Himself 
what  He  says  to  us  all :  What  shall  it  profit 
a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose 
himself?  " 

This  atmosphere  is  not  ancient  but  mod- 
ern. We  seem  to  be  reading  the  thoughts 
of  the  American  church  and  its  ministry. 
This  is  the  temptation  of  our  age, — to  win 
the  world  at  home  and  abroad  by  going 
over  to  it,  making  an  alliance  with  it. 
Students  in  the  School  of  Christ,  do  you  see  ? 
If  our  Master  fails  here  we  shall  have  no 
further  interest  in  His  methods  or  His  work. 
He  cannot  save  the  world  if  He  makes  this 
bad  alliance.  He  cannot  win  the  world  by 
going  over  to  it.  He  must  not  misuse  the 
divine  power.  He  must  not  misuse  the  divine 
promises.  He  must  not  forsake  the  divine 
plan  for  winning  the  world.  No  evil  spot 
must  touch  that  or  any  of  it  anywhere. 
One  flaw,  one  slip,  one  compromise  will  spoil 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  133 

it  all.  Oh,  angels  of  God,  watch  Him  and 
watch  us  all  that  we  fail  not  at  any  of  these 
points,  and  guide  us  into  the  method  of  His 
life  in  His  conflict  with  evil.  The  methods 
of  His  activities  will  be  useless  in  our  hands 
if  we  have  not  learned  this  method  of  His  life. 
This  has  had  to  do  with  keeping  life  from 
evil.  Now  take  the  other  side  of  His  life. 
What  was  His  method  of  maintaining  His 
life  in  those  positive  qualities  that  make  for 
eflectiveness  ?  How  did  He  keep  His  life 
strong  and  fit?  What  can  we  learn  from 
Him  in  this  vital  matter  ?  Two  or  three 
things  certainly.  First,  that  the  maintenance 
of  such  a  life  requires  attention.  Life  does 
not  keep  itself  up  to  tone  without  effort.  The 
life  of  Jesus  Himself  would  have  run  down  if 
He  had  just  let  it  go.  Second,  being  busy 
even  in  doing  good  will  not  keep  the  tides 
of  life  running  full  and  strong.  Being  busy 
has  a  way  of  exhausting  the  tides.  A  watch 
runs  down  keeping  time,  though  keeping 
time  is  its  business.  Many  a  man  wonders 
why  he  is  so  ineffective  when  he  tries  so  hard 
to  do  good.     His  hands  are  busy  but  empty. 


134  CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

He  has  plenty  of  activities  but  not  much  life. 
He  has  only  learned  part  of  the  method  of 
Jesus.  That  method  embraced  abstinence 
from  evil,  maintenance  of  excellence  and 
doing  of  work.  At  the  risk  of  being  tiresome 
I  repeat  the  distinction  between  His  life 
methods  and  His  working  methods ;  or 
rather  I  emphasize  these  life  methods  as 
fundamental  to  the  methods  of  His  activities. 
How,  then,  did  He  keep  His  life  strong  and 
fit  ?  This  too  is  an  open  secret.  Why  will 
we  persist  in  making  the  personal  life  of  Jesus 
so  unreal  ?  Why  do  we  always  hold  it  away 
from  us  by  one  or  two  removes  ?  We  admit 
'the  propriety  of  His  baptism,  for  example, 
but  do  not  attach  to  it  much  significance  for 
Him.  Yet  in  that  conformity  to  the  higher 
ritual  He  heard  those  words  and  had  that 
experience  without  which  He  could  not  have 
begun  His  work.  That  day  the  Spirit  de- 
scended upon  Him,  and  that  day  He  heard 
the  words,  "  Thou  art  My  Son.  In  Thee  I 
am  well  pleased."  It  was  more  than  an  official 
recognition,  a  formal  entrance  to  His  career. 
It  had  personal  significance.     Now  its  sug- 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  135 

gestive  value  for  us  lies  in  this,  that  our 
Master  used  all  those  means  to  raise  and  keep 
His  life  to  the  highest  levels  that  belong  to 
the  real  spiritual  history  of  the  race.  And 
He  did  this  not  as  a  simple  show,  or  merely 
to  set  us  an  example.  He  did  it  because  it 
was  worth  doing  for  His  own  life's  sake.  It 
becomes  an  example  because  of  its  use  in 
His  life. 

So  with  the  place  of  prayer  in  His  life. 
We  need  prayer  very  much  and  use  it  very 
little.  We  are  prone  to  think  He  needed  it 
very  little  and  used  it  very  much.  But  surely 
here  again  we  are  mistaken.  Remember  the 
tendency  of  life,  the  tendency  of  even  the 
best  life  to  run  down.  Nobody  knew  this  as 
well  as  Jesus  did.  See  what  He  said  about 
it.  See  chiefly  what  He  did  about  it.  He 
did  not  pray  just  to  set  an  example.  He 
lived  the  life  of  prayer  because  for  Him  it 
was  worth  living.  It  kept  the  channels  of 
life  open,  the  tides  of  real  power  flowing,  for 
Him  as  it  would  for  us.  He  becomes  an  ex- 
ample because  of  the  reality  of  His  practice. 
There  was  nothing  artificial  about  it.     It  was 


136  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

not  sham  praying  or  display  praying.  He 
did  not  pray  in  order  that  or  because  men 
might  see  Him  and  be  impressed  and  stimu- 
lated to  do  Hkewise.  He  prayed  because  He 
felt  the  need  of  it  and  knew  the  value  of  it. 
He  did  not  mean  to  have  any  low  moments. 
He  purposed  to  keep  life  persistently  at  its 
highest  levels.  He  was  determined  that  His 
personality  should  project  His  activity  as  far 
as  possible.  The  more  He  had  to  do  the 
more  ready  and  able  He  must  be  for  the  do- 
ing of  it.  The  fundamental  condition  of  suc- 
cessful activity  was  and  is  personality.  It 
must  conform  to  the  higher  ritual ;  it  must 
keep  perfect  its  contact  with  the  life  of  God. 
Men  ought  always  to  pray,  not  because  of 
the  answers  they  get  in  the  ordinary  sense, 
but  because  of  the  power  true  prayer  brings 
into  the  life  of  a  praying  man.  Jesus  is  the 
best  exemplification  of  what  prayer  means. 

I  cannot  take  time  to  study  at  length  the 
other  methods  of  His  life.  They  are  imper- 
fectly covered  by  the  terms :  submission  to 
the  best  influences,  use  of  the  best  literature, 
and    **  practice    of    the    presence   of    God." 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  13  7 

When  Christ  put  Himself  into  our  human 
conditions  He  took  upon  Himself  our  human 
tendencies  and  exposed  Himself  to  our  hu- 
man perils.  His  life  was  not  so  shielded 
that  the  things  which  mean  so  much  to  us 
meant  nothing  to  Him.  We  have  to  make 
our  constant  fight  for  character.  It  would 
upset  the  universe  if  the  life  of  the  best  one 
in  our  race  did  not  bring  us  the  best  light 
upon  this  struggle.  I  believe  it  does.  For 
this  reason  I  am  saying  so  much  about  the 
life  methods  of  Jesus.  How  did  He  keep 
Himself  from  every  taint  and  stain  of  evil  ? 
How  did  He  keep  Himself  strong  and  right  ? 
I  hesitate  to  say  anything  else,  and  am  in- 
clined to  leave  these  two  questions  with  you 
for  silence  and  thought  and  meditation  and 
prayer. 

Still,  I  suppose,  we  must  take  up  the  sub- 
ject of  the  methods  of  His  activities.  For 
the  end  of  training  is  not  character  but  char- 
acter for  service.  Life  methods  must  find 
their  fruitful  expression  in  activity.  Men  of 
good  will  and  good  feeling  must  be  men  of 
good  deeds.     It  is  only  a  few  rods  from  the 


138  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

Transfiguration  to  the  boy  possessed  by  the 
demons.  Now  methods  are  necessarily  con- 
ditioned by  time  and  place  and  circumstance. 
This  is  a  commonplace  which  needs  only  to 
be  stated.  With  this  the  way  is  clear.  What 
did  Jesus  intend  to  do  ?  He  had  a  program. 
We  have  already  studied  that.  How  did  He 
try  to  do  it  ?  What  spirit,  what  motives, 
what  temper  did  He  bring  to  His  task  ?  His 
life  was  all  of  one  piece.  What  He  intended 
to  do  determined  His  methods  and  His  spirit. 
Some  years  ago  a  suggestive  volume  of 
sermons  appeared  with  the  title,  The  Son  of 
Man  Among  the  Sons  of  Men.  More  recently 
there  have  been  several  of  the  same  import. 
Some  of  this  has  been  good,  some  of  it  rather 
overdone.  Some  of  it  is  quite  underdone. 
We  must  not  exaggerate  the  artistic  perfec- 
tion of  Christ's  dealing  with  men  to  such  an 
extent  that  He  appears  chiefly  as  an  artist. 
Nor  must  we  on  the  other  hand  underesti- 
mate the  wisdom  of  it  so  as  to  create  the  im- 
pression that  it  was  all  unstudied  and  spon- 
taneous. The  life  of  Jesus  may  be  made 
either  too  hard  or  too  easy ;  so  hard  as  to 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  1 39 

discourage  us,  so  easy  as  to  lose  all  value. 
We  may  come  to  feel  on  one  hand  that  we 
can  do  nothing  for  men  until  we  understand 
them  with  an  infallible  understanding,  or  on 
the  other,  that  we  can  do  them  all  possible 
good  without  any  understanding  at  all.  For 
example,  take  the  familiar  case  of  Thomas. 
It  is  our  easy  habit,  our  lazy  habit,  to  char- 
acterize him  as  doubting  Thomas,  or  Thomas 
the  Doubter.  And  the  word  is  supposed  to 
cover  not  only  poor  Thomas  but  all  other 
doubters  as  if  they  were  all  alike.  It  is  also 
supposed  that  the  word  itself  is  so  luminous 
as  to  define  the  thing  fully.  But  everybody 
who  has  had  any  dealings  with  life  feels  the 
unreality  of  this  easy  method.  Characteriza- 
tion by  epithet  is  like  salvation  by  phrase  or 
religious  statement  by  shibboleth,  too  handy 
and  convenient  to  be  effective.  So  with  all 
such  neat  and  readily  quoted  terms  as  are 
familiar  to  us.  They  are  likely  to  mislead. 
One  does  not  understand  a  character  just  be- 
cause he  has  affixed  a  term  to  it.  If  we  did 
we  need  not  spend  any  time  in  the  School  of 
Christ. 


140  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

Yet  we  may  comfort  ourselves  with  the  fact 
that  Jesus  met  and  dealt  with  pretty  much 
every  type  of  character  in  His  own  day. 
Times  and  circumstances  have  all  changed, 
but  life  has  persisted.  The  qualities  of  man- 
hood remain  as  of  old.  We  must  meet  in 
new  conditions  the  old  personalities.  Con- 
ditions and  character  interact  and  react 
upon  each  other  and  we  have  to  reckon 
as  Jesus  did  with  both.  There,  perhaps,  is 
the  first  great  lesson  as  to  the  method  of 
Jesus  in  dealing  with  men  and  society  :  He 
gave  His  message  and  wrought  His  work 
with  sane  regard  to  time  and  place.  Like 
every  true  prophet  He  did  the  thing  that 
was  timely.  He  brought  the  eternal  to  the 
temporary,  the  universal  to  the  local  and 
particular,  He  dealt  with  the  men  of  His 
time  and  the  men  of  His  land.  One  of  the 
best  commencement  addresses  of  a  recent 
year  was  on  "  Strategy  and  Tactics."  Jesus 
was  both  a  strategist  and  a  tactician,  but 
He  was  such  a  skillful  tactician  because  He 
was  such  a  perfect  strategist.  When  He 
captured  a  man  like  Matthew  He  laid  hold  of 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE  IS  I4I 

all  the  manhood  of  that  kind  in  the  world. 
His  dealing  with  the  rich  young  ruler  goes  to 
the  heart  of  all  the  youth  having  any  kind  of 
wealth  since  that  time.  His  dominion  over 
Peter  appeals  to  all  of  Peter's  kind. 

We  are  somewhat  liable  to  overestimate 
the  value  of  Jesus'  methods  of  personal  work 
as  examples  for  us.  He  had  a  brief  ministry. 
His  chief  concern  was  to  train  a  few  who 
would  carry  it  on  after  He  was  gone.  He 
made  small  assault  upon  the  mass.  We  are 
in  the  place  of  His  disciples  rather  than  in 
His  place.  Our  work  is  like  theirs  rather 
than  like  His  in  its  details.  They  were  with 
Him  to  learn  what  He  did  that  they  might 
know  what  and  how  they  were  to  do.  We 
are  in  His  school  to  learn  our  task.  We 
must  gather  individuals  as  He  did,  but  we 
must  also  attack  the  mass.  We  must  pick 
out  the  choice  ones  as  He  did.  Here  His 
methods  are  incomparable.  We  must  help 
train  the  new  twelve  and  here  again  with 
due  regard  to  changed  conditions  His  meth- 
ods are  our  guide.  But  we  must  also  gather 
multitudes   as   Peter   did   at   Pentecost.     In 


142  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

Other  words  we  are  in  the  School  of  Christ 
not  only  to  see  what  the  Master  did  and 
to  learn  His  own  and  immediate  methods 
in  dealing  with  men  and  society,  but  to 
see  what  the  graduates  of  that  School 
did  and  are  expected  to  do  under  His  in- 
fluence and  after  receiving  His  instruc- 
tion. And  this  requires  us  to  study  the 
Apostolic  Church  as  well  as  the  life  of  our 
Lord,  and  for  this  purpose  I  commend  to 
you  such  books  as  Bruce' s  The  TraintJtg  of 
the  Twelve ;  Carpenter's  The  Son  of  Man 
Among  the  Sons  of  Men;  Greenough's  The 
Apostles  of  Our  Lord ;  Peabody's  fesus 
Christ  and  the  Social  Question;  Matthews' 
The  Social  Teaching  of  fesus ;  Hugh  Price 
Hughes'  Social  Christianity ;  and  a  volume 
called  The  Magnetism  of  Christ :  a  Study  of 
our  Lord^s  Missionary  Methods^  by  Dr.  John 
Smith,  dedicated  to  **  Our  Students  in  Glas- 
gow, Edinburgh  and  Aberdeen." 

Finally,  we  must  spend  a  few  minutes  con- 
sidering the  spirit  He  brought  to  His  task. 
Here  again  certain  assumptions  are  most  im- 
portant.    The  first  of  them  is  Christ's  view 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  I43 

of  humanity.  I  am  sure  we  must  possess 
this  if  we  are  to  do  those  other  things  of 
which  we  shall  speak  during  the  remaining 
hours.  His  view  of  humanity  was  funda- 
mental. It  was  not  *'  respect  for  high  attain- 
ment nor  pity  for  low  condition."  It  went 
deeper  and  higher  than  that.  *'  Every  man 
was  and  is  a  child  of  God,  let  that  fact  go 
where  it  will."  And  there  is  small  hope  for 
any  man's  ministry  which  has  not  this  spirit 
and  basis.  He  may  have  a  passion  for  sin- 
ners because  they  are  sinners.  This  was 
Cardinal  Manning's  word  of  praise  for  the 
Salvation  Army.  Or  at  the  other  extreme  a 
man  may  have  a  vast  admiration  for  man 
because  of  man's  inherent  excellence.  In 
either  case  he  will  have  a  partial  and  incom- 
plete ministry.  There  is  only  one  remedy 
or  cure  for  this  and  that  is  Jesus'  view  of 
man  used  as  a  working  basis.  Tucker  says, 
**  We  are  apt  to  retire  our  doctrines.  They 
represent  the  truth  we  have  on  deposit." 
But  Jesus  made  this  His  working  basis: 
Every  man  is  a  child  of  God.  That  is  a  part 
of  the  good  news. 


144  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

This,  I  believe,  was  the  root  of  His  com- 
passion, which  was  not  pity  for  aliens ;  the 
root  of  His  kindness  which  enabled  Him,  as 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  said,  '*  to  be  a  little 
kinder  than  was  necessary."  This  was  the 
root  of  His  long  patience :  He  was  dealing 
with  men  of  His  own  blood ;  the  root  of  His 
courage  and  the  root  of  His  unchanging 
love ;  this  the  root  of  His  passion  for  men. 
These  qualities  in  Him  once  begot  like  quali- 
ties in  other  men.  If  we  live  with  Him  in 
truth  they  will  beget  like  qualities  again. 

Further  it  was  this  conception,  I  think, 
which  led  to  the  utterance  of  that  fine  and 
fundamental  statement  of  the  spirit  of  our 
Master :  *'  For  their  sakes,  that  they  may  be 
sanctified  in  the  truth  I  sanctify  Myself." 
The  easiest  thing  in  the  use  of  language  is 
to  mix  and  misplace  your  pronouns.  You 
can  almost  test  a  life  by  this  test.  Well, 
apply  the  test  here.  Our  Master  will  bear 
it.  Here  is  the  relation  of  the  one  to  the 
many  :  **  For  their  sakes."  This  is  the  end 
for  which  one  strives  in  behalf  of  the  many  : 
"That  they  may  be  sanctified  in  the  truth." 


TO   LEARN   WHAT  HE   IS  145 

Here  is  the  process  by  which  one  maintains 
these  perfect  relations  and  obtains  this 
worthy  end  :  "  I  sanctify  myself."  For  this, 
and  for  them,  he  seems  to  say,  **  I  keep  my- 
self from  sin.  I  keep  myself  at  my  best.  I 
live  among  men.  I  offer  myself  up."  It  is 
to  master  these  methods  both  of  life  and 
activity,  to  acquire  this  spirit  for  life  and 
activity,  that  we  are  in  the  School  of  Christ. 
This  is  the  test  we  ourselves  must  bear  at 
last.  It  is  not  academic  but  personal,  and 
all  the  harder  for  that  reason.  But  the 
acquiring  of  this  spirit  is  worth  a  lifetime  of 
effort. 

*<  Oh,  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all 
Whate'er  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  Thy  sway,  we  hear  Thy  call, 
We  test  our  lives  by  Thine." 

We  are  getting  into  the  character  of 
Jesus.  We  work  our  way  through  the  story 
of  His  methods,  the  disclosure  of  His  spirit 
and  the  actual  revelations  of  His  qualities  into 
a  knowledge  of  Him.  We  are  not  told 
everything  we  would  like  to  know,  but  we 


146      CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

are  told  enough  to  enable  us  to  know 
Him  accurately.  But  we  can  interpret  what 
is  told  us,  we  can  understand  the  character 
of  Christ  only  so  far  as  we  live  with  Him 
and  live  like  Him.  This  is  not  alone  the 
method  of  approach,  it  is  the  method  of 
keeping  the  way  open  and  of  continued 
understanding.  There  are  many  ways  of 
approach  to  this  relation,  but  the  relation  is 
imperative.  Nobody  knows  London  or  New 
York  unless  he  lives  in  them  and  with  them 
and  for  them.  Perhaps  this  last  suggestion 
will  help  us.  Take  New  York,  for  example. 
Suppose  one  comes  down  the  Hudson  River, 
by  rail  or  by  boat.  Suppose  another  crosses 
over  by  ferry  or  through  the  tunnel  and  the 
river,  from  Jersey  City  or  Hoboken.  Sup- 
pose still  another  comes  in  from  Long  Island 
over  one  of  the  great  bridges  and  another  on 
an  Atlantic  liner  from  Europe.  Every  first 
impression  of  the  city  will  differ  from  every 
other,  every  one  will  be  tremendous,  every 
one  will  be  inadequate,  every  one  the  begin- 
ning of  an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  size, 
the  force,  the  personality  of  the  city  itself. 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  147 

It  will  Strike  these  observers  as  having  points 
of  resemblance  to  every  other  city  they  have 
seen,  even  to  villages  and  towns.  There  are 
features  and  characteristics  common  to  all. 
It  will  not  strike  them  all  alike  or  from  the 
same  angle.  It  will  strike  them  all  as  differ- 
ent from  anything  they  have  ever  seen. 
And  as  the  city  grows  and  grows  upon  them 
all  it  will  seem  the  chief  city  of  the  world  to 
them.  Let  us  see  if  we  can  disentangle 
for  our  purpose  some  of  the  words  which 
have  been  suggested  to  these  several  ob- 
servers :  likeness,  unlikeness,  extraordinari- 
ness,  preeminence.  Perhaps  we  shall  trans- 
late these  into  more  theological  terms  before 
we  are  through  and  perhaps  not.  We  shall 
^ee. 

The  city  is  like  other  cities  and  in  essence 
like  other  towns.  It  is  a  city  among  cities. 
That  is  the  first  thing  that  impresses  us. 
This  gives  it  its  point  of  contact  with  all 
other  municipal  life.  So  our  Master  was  a 
man  among  men.  That  is  the  primary  truth. 
Some  never  go  any  further  than  this  and 
some  go  so  far  that  they  forget  this.     This 


148  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

fact  of  likeness  gives  Him  His  point  or  points 
of  contact  with  all  other  personal  life.  We 
do  not  quite  get  into  the  subject  as  the 
first  disciples  did.  We  must  not  press  the 
analogy  of  method  until  it  goes  on  all  fours. 
But  for  them  and  for  us  He  must  make  His 
own  impression.  He  moved  in  the  region 
of  normal  life.  He  lived  in  the  realm  of  per- 
sonality. He  was  measured  once  and  must 
be  again  by  the  terms  of  human  measure- 
ment. As  Gore  suggests,  "  He  must  be  con- 
sidered not  in  comparison  with  laws,  but 
in  comparison  wdth  persons.  He  must  be 
thought  of  not  as  a  problem  but  as  a  char- 
acter." In  all  these  qualities  and  experi- 
ences then  belonging  to  true  personality,  we 
must  think  of  Him  as  normal  and  human. 
His  personal  habits  and  activities.  His  per- 
sonal relations  and  attitudes,  all  proclaim 
the  genuineness  of  His  human  nature.  The 
dweller  from  the  village  sees  in  the  great 
city  the  same  qualities  he  sees  in  the  small 
town.  The  common  man  feels  a  sense  of 
kinship  with  our  Master.  The  carpenter  at 
work  yonder  on  the  new  building,  or  in  his 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  149 

small  shop,  in  his  best  hours  remembers  that 
other  carpenter.  The  village  boy  learning  a 
trade  recalls  how  that  far-off  boy  did  the 
same.  As  one  has  said  :  **  The  contributions 
which  the  world  made  to  His  personality 
were  of  the  same  sort  which  the  world  makes 
to  all  men.  The  gifts  of  home  and  nature 
and  experience  of  joy  and  friendship  and 
prayer  came  from  the  treasure  house  of  God 
in  rich  bounty,  but  not  with  partiality." 
These  were  all  His  as  they  are  or  may  be 
ours.     As  Browning  put  it : 

**  A  Face  like  my  face     .     .     .     a  Man  like  to  me, 
.     .     .     a  Hand  like  this  hand." 

He  touches  life  at  life's  own  levels.  The  at- 
mosphere in  which  He  lives  and  works  is 
normal.  We  all  feel  this,  but  we  know  also 
that  this  term  does  not  exhaust  the  list  that 
applies  to  Him.  Men  easily  speak  of  the 
human  life  of  God  and  the  divine  life  of 
man,  but  these  are  only  partial  truths. 

I  am  reluctant  to  use  the  word  unlikeness. 
The  villager,  after  a  sober  comparison  be- 
tween the  village  and  the  city  in  which  he 


I50  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

finds  himself,  finds  them  at  root  alike,  but 
nevertheless  sums  up  his  conclusion  in  the 
words  :  '*  Our  town  is  no  such  town  as  this." 
Yet  in  both,  men  are  trading  and  cheating, 
hating  and  loving,  telling  the  truth  and  lying, 
doing  the  same  things.  The  facts  of  life  are 
all  common  facts.  The  starting  point  is  the 
same,  the  processes  do  not  essentially  differ. 
But  something  sets  New  York  far  up  above 
the  village  in  the  Catskills.  Things  are  on  a 
different  scale.  The  scale  is  so  much  larger 
that  the  kind  is  unlike.  Life  and  commerce 
are  on  a  far  vaster  plan.  Everything  has 
more  meaning,  a  broader  scope  and  reach. 
This  ordinary  man  finds  at  work  forces  and 
energies  which  dazzle  and  stun  him.  He 
becomes  conscious  of  new  relations,  world  re- 
lations, events  that  bear  stupendous  signifi- 
cance. His  own  small  town  looks  small,  but 
not  contemptible.  It  looks  more  valuable 
because  he  has  seen  this  better,  bigger  city. 
Now  drop  that  figure.  Quit  thinking  of 
towns,  and  go  back  again  to  personalities. 
In  this  school  we  are  in  the  presence  of  One. 
No  matter  by  what  path  we  came  we  here 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  151 

come  to  Him.  He  is  unlike  as  well  as  like, 
unlike  chiefly  as  it  usually  seems  to  us. 
Everything  about  Him  is  on  a  new  scale. 
His  outlook,  His  plans,  have  daring  and 
scope  and  reach.  He  handles  the  powers  of 
an  endless  life.  He  amazes  us.  He  came 
through  all  those  common  experiences  that 
we  call  the  ordinary  normal  life,  but  He  came 
through  them  differently  and  to  greater  pur- 
pose. He  dwelt  in  time,  but  lived  a  mani- 
festly eternal  life  in  the  midst  of  time.  He 
was  surrounded  by  nature  and  man's  rela- 
tions to  it,  but  not  mastered  by  them.  He, 
too,  felt  the  force  of  temptation,  such  temp- 
tation as  only  lofty  souls  feel,  but  He  bore 
Himself  through  it  all  with  such  poise,  such 
self-control,  as  sets  Him  in  a  class  by  Himself. 
He  wielded  one  force  that  awes  us  to  this 
day.  We  call  it  His  sinlessness.  This  is 
more  than  the  absence  of  wrong  in  His  life. 
It  is  not  a  negative  virtue.  This  is  a  supreme 
and  unmatched  power.  It  is  a  good  deal 
more  than  absence  of  defect.  It  is  the  perfect 
realization  of  ideal  character.  Every  man 
feels  it  since  Peter  perceived  it.     Here  is  the 


152      CHOSEN  BY  THE  MASTER 

unutterable  splendour  of  a  being  before  whom 
we  cry  out :  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a 
sinful  man."  There  are  things  going  on  in 
other  men  that  are  not  going  on  in  Him. 
The  city  is  not  only  larger,  the  new  city  is 
wholly  clean  and  free  from  evil. 

We  do  not  fully  estimate  the  significance 
of  this  stupendous  fact.  The  old  Jews  had  a 
legend,  you  remember,  to  the  effect  that  the 
true  pronunciation  of  the  name  of  Jehovah 
had  been  lost,  and  that  w^hoever  recovered 
it  should  have  the  secrets  of  nature  opened 
to  him  and  the  forces  of  nature  put  in  his 
hand.  It  is  more  than  a  legend.  Those 
first  students  in  the  School  of  Christ  heard 
their  Master,  our  Master,  speak  the  word 
Father  with  the  true  filial  accent,  and  lo  ! 
nature  was  to  Him  as  an  open  book,  w^hile 
at  His  word  unmatched  marvels  took  place. 
But  better  than  that  His  sinlessness  secured 
other  results.  We  covet  the  power  to  do 
those  physical  marvels  and  a  vast  cult  arises 
based  upon  its  pretenses  to  do  again  the 
works  of  Christ.  But  the  results  of  sinless- 
ness are  vastly  more  rich  and  precious  than 


TO   LEARN   WHAT   HE   IS  1 53 

the  power  to  do  physical  marvels.  Sinless- 
ness  gives  men  a  clear  insight  into  moral 
issues.  I  quote  suggestive  words  :  "  It  does 
not  involve  omniscience,  but  it  does  involve 
the  ability  to  see  the  truth  of  things  ;  to 
penetrate  all  shams,  all  deceits,  all  hypocrisies, 
to  unravel  the  tangled  skein  of  the  moral 
life." 

Already  in  listening  to  what  Jesus  said  we 
were  overwhelmed  by  hearing  Him  say  to 
His  Father :  ''  I  know  that  Thou  hearest 
Me  always."  What  is  that?  Is  this  a  new 
definition  of  sinlessness  ?  Jesus'  life  was  all 
of  a  piece.  Sinlessness  kept  the  way  open. 
Keeping  the  way  open  preserved  the  sinless- 
ness. Out  of  this  came  His  authority  to 
speak  what  we  are  here  to  listen  to.  Out 
of  this  came  His  power  to  do  what  we  are 
here  to  see.  Out  of  this  comes  that  complete 
and  perfect  personality  which  must  ever  be 
the  world's  best  possession. 

But  let  us  hurry  back  again  before  we  get 
too  far  away.  We  must  not  lose  Him  in 
this  well-deserved  eulogy.  We  must  not 
set  Him  so  far  apart  from  anything  we  are 


154  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

or  any  one  we  know  that  the  connection  will 
be  broken.  We  cry  out  in  Sidney  Lanier's 
wonderful  words : 

**  But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  Sovereign  Seer  of  time, 
But  Thee,  O  poet's  Poet,  wisdom's  tongue, 
But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  best  Love, 
O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ, 
O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King  or  Priest, 
What  if  or  yet,  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 
What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect, 
What  rumours  tattled  by  an  enemy 
Of  influence  loose,  what  lack  of  grace. 
Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's  or  death's, — 
Oh,  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 
Jesus,  good  Paragon,  Thou  Crystal  Christ?" 

All  that  He  is.  But  we  are  His  pupils  in  His 
School  with  Him.  We  will  not  take  a  low 
view  of  Christ  just  to  keep  Him  near.  We 
will  not  set  Him  apart  and  afar  even  while 
we  enthrone  Him.  We  will  keep  the  point 
of  contact  and  the  vision  of  preeminence. 

Have  you  forgotten  that  there  is  still  one 
word  left  back  there  which  we  have  not  yet 
considered  ?  We  were  speaking  of  towns  and 
we  spoke  of  preeminence.  You  knew  where 
that  word  came  from  at  the  time,  and  your 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  155 

lips  Spontaneously  framed  the  sentence 
"  that  in  all  things  He  might  have  the  pre- 
eminence." That  word  was  affixed  once  by  a 
master  writer  to  our  Master.  There  it  stays. 
That  is  the  impression  He  makes  on  us.  He 
always  made  it.  Likeless,  unlikeness,  extra- 
ordinariness,  preeminence, — these  are  the 
terms.  They  are  not  a  complete  list.  Yet  they 
will  do.  You  remember  in  The  Bonnie  Brier 
Bush  Flora  Campbell  said  to  Margaret  Howe : 
**  It  is  a  peety  you  hef  not  the  Gaelic ;  it  is  the 
best  of  all  languages  for  loving.  There  are 
fifty  words  for  darling,  and  my  father  will  be 
calling  me  every  one  that  night  I  came 
home."  Those  early  students  were  not  sty- 
lists, not  at  all  like  Walter  Pater  or  Henry 
James.  They  knew,  however,  five  or  six 
words  for  Master  and  they  applied  them  all 
to  Him.  They  were  not  restrained  in  their 
efforts  to  tell  what  they  thought  He  was.  I 
can  easily  imagine  John  and  James,  or 
Peter  and  Paul  comparing  notes,  measuring 
the  terms  each  had  applied  to  Jesus,  and  the 
efforts  each  had  made  to  state  the  impression 
Christ  had  made  on  them,  each  in  a  difTerent 


156  CHOSEN   BY   THE   MASTER 

way.  And  then  I  can  easily  imagine  them 
stopping  it  all  and  bowing  down  with  shame 
and  regret  that  their  best  w^as  so  poor  and 
inadequate. 

"  Join  all  the  glorious  names 
Of  wisdom,  love  and  power ; 
All  are  too  mean  to  speak  His  worth, 
Too  mean  to  set  the  Saviour  forth." 

The  terms  of  the  New  Testament  are  all 
vital.  They  are  not  academic.  The  doc- 
trine of  Christ  came  not  of  resolution  or  ef- 
fort to  frame  a  doctrine.  The  doctrine  of 
Christ  was  born  of  the  fact  of  Christ  as  men 
lived  themselves  into  it.  The  person  was 
not  created  by  the  doctrine,  the  doctrine 
came  from  the  person.  Those  first  men  did 
not  hesitate  to  attribute  to  Him  terms  be- 
longing to  deity.  They  were  not  afraid  of 
what  we  now  call  the  supernatural.  These  two 
great  words  "deity"  and  "  supernatural "  had 
to  come  out  here  sooner  or  later.  They  are 
always  in  danger  of  being  used  as  shibbo- 
leths. Many  men  talk  of  the  deity  of  Christ 
not  because  they  have  lived  with  Him  until 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  157 

this  has  become  a  burning  truth,  but  because 
the  stout  assertion  of  it  is  held  to  be  an  unfail- 
ing test  of  orthodoxy.  They  ardently  quote 
the  words  of  the  confession  or  the  articles : 
"  Very  God  of  very  God  and  very  man  of 
very  man  " — true  words,  but  absolutely  dead 
words  unless  one  has  Hved  his  way  into  them 
by  living  companionship  with  our  brother 
and  Lord.  It  is  so  easy  to  say  the  words. 
It  is  so  easy,  as  Gordon  says,  to  have  ex- 
temporized convictions  about  Christ.  What 
I  am  trying  to  say  is  that  we  must  enter  the 
School  of  Christ  to  learn  what  He  was ;  that 
there  our  judgments  must  be  completed  and 
perfected,  that  tuition  must  precede  opinion, 
that  ''discipleship  must  precede  apostleship." 
There  are  a  dozen  ways  of  approaching  Him, 
but  by  every  one  of  these  ways  the  faithful 
soul  seeking  to  come  to  the  truth  for  life's 
purposes  succeeds  in  coming. 

I  know  something  of  the  troubled  atmos- 
phere of  the  time  in  which  we  live.  The 
questions  of  our  age  press  down  upon  me. 
It  is  given  to  me  to  look  every  year  into 
the  eager  faces  of  thousands  of  students  for 


158  CHOSEN   BY  THE  MASTER 

whom  this  question  concerning  Jesus  Christ, 
who  He  is,  is  the  perplexing,  staggering 
question  of  Hfe.  They  do  not  Hsten  to  the 
old  voices  of  authority.  Councils  do  not 
greatly  impress  them.  The  old  arguments 
are  not  all  convincing.  The  ground  of  con- 
troversy and  defense  has  shifted  even  in 
twenty-five  years.  The  answer  to  this 
supreme  question  must  be  such  that  the 
modern  student  can  *'knit  it  into  the  rest 
of  his  mental  furniture."  And  this  modern 
student  is  not  convinced  at  all  until  he  is 
wholly  convinced.  He  wants  to  believe  with 
his  whole  system,  as  Brooks  said  about 
praying.  What  then  shall  we  say  to  him 
and  to  the  rest  of  our  modern  world  at  home 
and  abroad?  For  the  question  of  who 
Christ  is,  and  what  Christ  is,  is  not  simply 
the  small  affair  of  your  opinion  or  mine  ;  it  is 
the  supreme  world  question.  I  know  of  no 
method  of  bringing  men  to  the  truth  except 
to  bring  them  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
The  words  **  bringing  men  to  Jesus "  have 
been  abused  by  a  soft  treatment  of  them.  I 
would  restore  them  to  their  high  personal  sig- 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE   IS  1 59 

nificance  and  make  them  mean  again  what 
they  meant  in  that  far-off  time  when  He  said, 
''Come  and  see."  Into  the  School  of  Christ, 
to  hear  what  He  said,  to  see  what  He  did, 
that  they  may  learn  what  He  is,  I  would 
invite  men.  The  way  of  life  with  Him  and 
like  Him  is  the  sacred  way  to  truth  about 
Him.  And  the  knowledge  of  Him  sets  life 
free.  Men  who  live  with  Him  and  live  like 
Him  come  to  know  Him.  I  do  not  ask  full 
faith  at  the  beginning.  I  only  ask  men  to 
try.  You  remember  Matthew  Arnold's  brave 
words : 

"  Long  fed  on  boundless  hopes,  O  race  of  man. 
How  angrily  thou  spurn'st  all  simpler  fare  ! 
'  Christ,'  some  one  says,  *  was  human  as  we  are; 
No  judge  eyes  us  from  Heaven,  our  sin  to  scan ; 

"  '  We  live  no  more,  when  we  have  done  our  span.' — 
'Well,  then,  for  Christ,'  thou  answerest,  'who  can 

care? 
From  sin,  which  Heaven  records  not,  why  forbear  ? 
Live  we  like  brutes  our  life  without  a  plan  !  ' 

**  So  answerest  thou ;  but  why  not  rather  say : 
*  Hath  man  no  second  life? — Pitch  this  one  high.' 
Sits  there  no  judge  in  Heaven,  our  sin  to  see  ? — 


l6o  CHOSEN   BY  THE   MASTER 

*'  *  More  strictly,  then,  the  inward  judge  obey  ! 
Was  Christ  a  man  like  us  ?     Ah  !  let  us  try 
If  we  then,  too,  can  be  such  men  as  He !  *  " 


Into  the  School  of  Christ  we  come  as 
learners,  chiefly  to  learn  of  Him.  We  hear 
Him  speak,  we  see  Him  work,  we  watch  the 
methods  and  spirit  of  His  life ;  gleams  of  His 
character  break  upon  our  vision ;  we  walk 
the  path  of  obedience,  of  fellowship,  of  sacri- 
fice, of  truth,  of  toil,  of  life  until  we  cry  out 
in  adoring  love : 

'  Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory,  oh  Christ, 
Thou  art  the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Father." 

And  this  is  life  eternal — to  know  Him. 

I  am  loath  to  leave  this  part  of  our  sub- 
ject. I  do  not  seem  to  have  half  said  what 
at  the  start  I  wanted  to  say.  Always  I  am 
trying  to  understand  the  truth  of  Christ,  the 
truth  in  Christ ;  always  I  am  trying  to 
master  Christ's  program  and  purpose,  to 
know  fully  what  He  intended  and  intends  to 
do  in  the  world ;  always  I  am  trying  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  Him.     For  this  triple 


TO   LEARN  WHAT  HE  IS  l6l 

purpose  many  times  and  in  many  ways  each 
year  I  read  and  study  the  four  Gospels,  and 
seek  all  light  from  all  sources  upon  these 
problems.  What  a  school  this  School  of 
Christ  is  I  What  truth,  what  activities,  what 
a  Person  !  It  is  the  truth  best  worth  learn- 
ing, it  is  the  thing  best  worth  doing,  He  is 
the  Person  best  worth  knowing.  Oh,  men 
already  in,  and  men  coming  into  this  School, 
lift  ^up  your  hearts  with  pride  and  with  joy 
that  He  ever  chose  you  to  be  with  Him  1 


LECTURE  IV 

SENT     FORTH     BY     THE 
MASTER:  WITH  A  MESSAGE 


LECTURE  IV 

SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER : 
WITH  A  MESSAGE 

THIS  theme  turns  our  look  outward. 
There  are  two  great  events  in  a 
person's  college  life.  One  is  his 
matriculation,  the  other  his  graduation ;  his 
entrance  and  his  departure.  Going  into  col- 
lege and  going  through  college  bear  steadily 
and  constantly  towards  getting  out  into  the 
world.  All  this  is  in  our  text,  the  one  we 
have  had  all  the  while  in  mind, — ''And  He 
goeth  up  into  the  mountain,  and  calleth  unto 
Him  whom  He  Himself  would ;  and  they 
went  unto  Him.  And  He  appointed  twelve, 
that  they  might  be  with  Him,  and  that  He 
might  send  them  forth  to  preach,  and  to 
have  authority  to  cast  out  demons  "  (Mark  iii. 
13-15).  They  go  in  with  Him  that  they  may 
go  out  for  Him.  They  study  that  they 
may  teach,  they  learn  that  they  may  do  and 
achieve.     They  go  in  out  of  the  world  that 

165 


1 66   SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

they  may  go  out  into  the  world.  They  be- 
come disciples  that  they  may  become  apos- 
tles. They  become  students  that  they  may 
become  prophets.  This  is  the  true  order, 
though  it  is  sometimes  reversed.  Some  men 
become  apostles  and  prophets  immediately. 
They  do  not  last  long  nor  amount  to  much. 

The  task  of  the  graduate  is  vastly  more 
difficult  than  the  task  of  the  undergraduate. 
It  is  far  easier  to  earn  a  diploma  than  it  is 
to  live  up  to  one,  just  as  it  is  far  easier  to 
be  ordained  than  it  is  to  be  a  deacon  or  an 
elder.  We  do  not  now  turn  our  backs  upon 
the  school.  We  take  everything  we  have 
learned  and  obtained  there  and  face  the 
world  with  it.  We  especially  do  not  leave 
our  Master  as  we  go  out  to  preach.  The 
teacher  of  Greek  or  literature  remains  in  his 
chair  as  we  go  forth,  only  going  with  us  in 
his  teaching  and  his  abiding  influence.  But 
the  Master  of  the  School  of  Christ  goes  forth 
with  those  who  have  been  with  Him  and  re- 
mains with  them  all  the  days.  This  makes 
our  task  both  difficult  and  possible.  Because 
He  is  with  us  we  must  do  it  in  a  fashion 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  167 

worthy  of  Him ;  because  He  is  with  us  we 
can  so  do  it  if  we  will. 

I  suppose  the  very  familiarity  of  the  term 
preaching  compels  us  to  attempt  some  state- 
ment as  to  what  preaching  means  and  some 
estimate  of  its  place  in  our  plan.  Christ's 
estimate  of  the  value  of  teaching  is  seen  in 
the  place  He  gave  it  in  His  life  schedule. 
Men  are  not  in  the  habit  of  asking  them- 
selves, as  they  ought,  every  little  while : 
'  What  is  this  thing  I  am  doing  ?  What  is 
its  relation  to  my  life  plan  as  a  whole  ?  And 
am  I  doing  it  as  it  ought  to  be  done  in  view 
of  its  place  in  the  total  work  of  my  life  ?  " 

Preaching,  which  seems  particular,  thus 
integrates  with  the  general.  It  reaches  out 
in  every  direction  and  everything  reaches  in 
to  it.  It  ceases  to  be  a  thing  of  momentary 
meaning,  the  significance  of  one  sermon  to  a 
few  people.  All  the  truth  we  have  learned 
stands  up  crying  for  right  utterance  ;  all  man- 
kind is  in  the  small  congregation  crying  to 
be  taught ;  Christ  and  humanity  have  met 
in  this  chance  to  come  together.  I  spoke 
recently  at  the  funeral  of  a  colleague  greatly 


l68        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

beloved.  It  seemed  to  me  that  all  the  grief 
of  all  my  brethren  stood  before  me  demand- 
ing expression  ;  and  the  speech  ceased  to  be 
my  speech  and  was  caught  up,  as  all  true 
speaking  should  always  be,  into  those  upper 
currents  where  the  universal  and  eternal  meet 
the  local  and  temporary. 

The  words  **  to  preach  "  reach  back  to  what 
we  have  been  studying,  to  Christ's  teaching, 
His  activities  and  His  Person  ;  and  reach  for- 
ward to  the  interpretation  and  presentation 
of  all  this  so  that  men  shall  be  set  free  by 
this  truth,  engage  in  these  works  and  know 
this  supreme  Person.  The  output  is  in  nat- 
ural and  true  relation  to  the  intake.  I  know 
no  better  statement  of  it  than  the  one  given 
by  an  early  student  in  the  School  of  Christ : 

"  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that 
which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld, 
and  our  hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word 
of  life  (and  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we 
have  seen,  and  bear  witness,  and  declare 
unto  you  the  life,  the  eternal  life,  which  was 
with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested   unto 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  169 

us) ;  that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard 
declare  we  unto  you  also,  that  ye  also  may 
have  fellowship  with  us  :  yea,  and  our  fellow- 
ship is  with  the  Father,  and  with  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ :  and  these  things  we  write, 
that  our  joy  may  be  full"  (i  John  i.  1-4). 

What  they  learned  in  the  School  of  Christ 
determined,  when  they  were  sent  out,  the 
content  of  their  preaching.  Somehow  this 
seems  to  be  getting  preaching  above  the 
question  whether  it  shall  be  done  in  Nashville 
or  Hard  Scrabble,  whether  it  shall  be  paid 
for  in  large  salary  or  in  small.  It  puts  such 
a  golden  glow  upon  preaching  that  one  re- 
joices in  the  chance  to  do  it  anywhere.  The 
man  with  this  vision  links  his  own  preaching 
with  the  preaching  of  the  Master,  his  purpose 
in  preaching  with  the  Master's  purpose,  the 
truth  he  preaches  with  the  truth  he  has 
learned  from  the  Master,  and  preaching 
never  again  in  any  place  looks  common  or 
unimportant. 

Now  in  all  these  matters  definitions  are 
somewhat  in  the  nature  of  vanity.  We  can- 
not put  into  the  verbal  definition  of  preach- 


lyo        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

ing  or  any  other  great  thing  the  abounding 
life  that  ought  to  be  in  the  thing  itself.  Re- 
call, for  example,  Mr.  John  Morley's  definition 
of  literature  :  **  Literature  consists  of  all  the 
books — and  they  are  not  many — where  moral 
truth  and  human  passion  are  touched  with  a 
certain  largeness,  sanity,  and  attraction  of 
form."  That  is  as  good  a  definition  of  Htera- 
ture  as  any,  but  it  is  good  chiefly  because  it 
is  so  roomy  and  flexible.  Take  any  defini- 
tion of  preaching  and  you  will  see  the  same 
thing.  Some  of  us  were  brought  up  on 
Phelps  and  committed  his  famous  sentence 
to  memory  :  "  Preaching  is  an  oral  address, 
to  the  popular  mind,  upon  religious  truth  as 
contained  in  the  Scriptures,  elaborately 
treated  with  a  view  to  persuasion."  That  is 
a  perfectly  good  definition  for  a  text-book, 
but  it  is  discouraging  to  see  how  many  poor, 
wooden  sermons  can  be  built  on  so  good  a 
definition.  Here  is  another,  which  overflows 
with  the  personal  quality  :  "  Preaching  is 
the  communication  of  truth  by  man  to  man. 
It  has  two  essential  elements,  truth  and 
personality.     Preaching   is   the   bringing  of 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  jyi 

truth  through  personahty.  Jesus  chose  this 
method  of  extending  the  knowledge  of  Him- 
self through  the  world."  So  said  Phillips 
Brooks  in  his  "  Yale  Lectures,"  when  for 
some  of  us  the  world  was  young. 

*'  Truth  through  personality  !  "  That  may 
not  be  very  precise,  but  it  is  very  rich.  It 
touches  at  once  the  truth  we  have  learned 
and  the  men  we  have  become  or  may  become. 
It  gives  truth  a  personal  quality.  It  links 
our  method  with  the  method  of  God  in  the 
incarnation.  We  seem  to  have  a  relation 
now  to  the  very  way  in  which  God  brought 
His  truth  through  Jesus  Christ  to  us  men. 
He  was  a  messenger,  a  witness,  a  living 
letter  from  God  to  men.  In  Him  and  through 
Him  God  spoke  and  revealed  Himself  to 
men.  In  this  light  our  small  personal  con- 
ception of  preaching  breaks  to  pieces  in  our 
hands.  **  The  words  which  Thou  gavest  Me 
I  have  given  unto  them."  "  As  the  Father 
hath  sent  Me  into  the  world,  even  so  send  I 
you  into  the  world."  This  puts  us  into  those 
eternally  right  and  eternally  vital  relations 
with  Christ  Himself  and  with  historic  Chris- 


172         SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

tianity.  It  gives  us  a  preaching  out  of  the 
Christian  ages  for  the  age  in  which  we  preach. 
And  it  gives  us  a  truth  which  can  always 
be  saved  from  becoming  individual  and  petty. 
This  is  the  value  of  the  return  to  Christ,  that 
we  get  past  the  imperfect  to  the  perfect  in 
religion,  past  the  abstract  to  the  personal 
truth,  past  the  fragmentary  to  the  complete. 
The  evangel  is  so  complete  that  it  thrills  one 
even  yet  as  though  we  were  just  now  hearing 
it  for  the  first  time.  Many  things  are  absent 
from  the  gospels  and  the  Gospel,  but  nothing 
is  lacking  for  an  evangel  to  any  age.  The 
Gospel  as  a  gospel  is  perfect.  And  in  the 
School  of  Christ  we  have  mastered  that  liv- 
ing, balanced,  harmonious,  permanent  reve- 
lation in  word,  deed  and  person  which  we 
are  to  make  vital  to  our  generation.  The 
eternal  exists.  The  eternal  has  been  mani- 
fested and  experienced  in  time.  The  eternal 
thus  manifested  and  experienced  must  be 
declared.  The  eternal  saves  the  personal 
from  being  weak  and  thin.  The  declara- 
tion of  the  eternal  is  not  that  men  may  know 
our   experience    but   that    they   may   know 


WITH  A  MESSAGE  1 73 

the  eternal.  This  touch  with  the  eternal 
keeps  the  fires  from  going  out.  This  swings 
us  into  that  truth  which  we  are  to  preach. 
For  we  are  not  preachers  of  every  kind  of 
truth,  but  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ, 
And  just  here  we  are  always  exposed  to  two 
or  three  dangers ;  one  that  we  shall  not  get 
that  truth,  one  that  we  shall  mistake  some- 
thing else  for  it,  and  another  that  we  shall 
fail  to  preach  it  in  its  fullness  and  richness. 
Men  think  the  truth  of  Christ  is  easy  to  ac- 
quire, or  that  it  is  identical  with  certain  facts 
about  Christ.  Or  they  think  that  everything 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  just  because 
it  is  there,  stands  on  the  same  level  for  preach- 
ing purposes.  Or  they  fear  the  truth  because 
it  cuts  across  conventions  and  prejudices, 
hoary  opinions  and  intrenched  dogmas.  But, 
after  all  is  said,  no  one  can  preach  who  has 
not  known  and  vitalized  in  his  own  life  and 
humanized  in  his  own  experience  the  truth  of 
Christ.  And  no  one  who  does  thus  know  it 
can  preach  anything  else.  Nor  will  he  just 
for  effect  withhold  anything  that  is  true  or 
say  anything  that  is  false.     He  knows  that 


174        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

the  heavens  do  not  fall  when  the  truth  is 
spoken  in  love,  in  love  for  the  truth  and  for 
the  men  to  whom  it  is  spoken. 

And  such  a  preacher  is  not  afraid  of  the 
whole  truth  of  Christ.  He  does  not  overwork 
the  elective  principle.  Balance  is  destroyed 
and  perspective  lost  when  one  becomes  a 
specialist  in  this  matter  of  preaching.  An 
exclusive  devotion  either  to  the  teaching,  the 
work  or  the  person  of  Christ  is  attended  with 
evil  results.  An  exclusive  devotion  to  the 
teaching  of  Christ,  to  the  neglect  of  His  work 
and  person,  leads  to  a  barren  dogmatism 
and  intellectualism.  Definitions,  phrases  and 
propositions  become  the  test  of  orthodoxy  and 
the  object  of  faith.  An  exclusive  devotion 
to  the  deeds  of  Christ  leads  to  an  impotent 
and  exaggerated  activity,  impotent  because 
broken  off  from  His  refreshing  person  and 
His  sustaining  teaching,  exaggerated  because 
out  of  balance.  An  exclusive  devotion  to  His 
person  leads  at  last  to  false  ecstasy  and  mys- 
ticism. And  in  any  case  the  partial  and 
fragmentary  obtain  possession  always  to  the 
hurt   of  life  and  always  to  the  loss  of  the 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  1 75 

kingdom.  An  exclusive  use  of  features  and 
phases  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  has  the 
same  deadly  effect,  whether  it  be  the  hard 
truths  or  the  gentle  ones  upon  which  one  lays 
the  emphasis.  The  preacher  who  does  not 
use  all  the  truth  he  has  will  not  touch  with 
power  all  the  life  he  meets.  The  compre- 
hension of  Christ's  infinitely  rich  revelation  is 
the  task  of  the  student,  its  proclamation  the 
joy  of  the  preacher.  The  revelation  in  its 
fullness  determines  the  theme  of  his  study 
and  the  content  of  his  message.  The  partial 
so  easily  takes  the  place  of  the  complete  that 
we  must  ever  be  on  guard  against  it.  Men 
talk  about  declaring  the  whole  counsel  of 
God,  and  identify  this  with  preaching  some 
of  the  sterner  truths.  Indeed,  when  one  is 
laying  the  whole  stress  of  his  preaching  upon 
one  detached  truth  he  is  almost  certain  to 
fortify  himself  by  an  allusion  to  "  the  whole 
counsel,"  and  to  say  that  he  will  preach 
thus  whether  men  will  hear  or  whether  they 
will  forbear.  It  all  seems  very  brave  to  the 
man  who  is  doing  it.  And  when  men  will 
not  hear  he  exalts  himself  as  a  martyr  to  his 


176        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

own  courage  and  fidelity  to  the  truth.  The 
farewell  address  of  Paul  to  the  Ephesian 
elders  will  hardly  bear  the  strain  often  put 
upon  it :  "I  shrank  not  from  declaring  unto 
you  anything  that  was  profitable.  ...  I 
went  about  preaching  the  kingdom.  .  .  . 
I  shrank  not  from  declaring  unto  you  the 
whole  counsel  of  God."  Or  men  talk  about 
preaching  their  experience  as  though  this 
constituted  the  measure  of  Christ's  perfect 
and  rich  revelation.  How  defective  and  im- 
perfect all  this  partial  preaching  looks  when 
the  perfect  content  of  the  preacher's  message 
is  discovered  !  And  this  is  learned  not  in  a 
moment  nor  a  day,  only  in  the  school  of 
which  it  is  said :  "  He  chose  certain  to  be 
with  Him."  And  such  men  will  not  fail  to 
announce  Christianity  as  a  message  rather 
than  to  discuss  it  as  a  problem.  Moreover 
the  whole  counsel  will  centre  in  this  :  **  God 
was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto 
Himself."  **  What  we  have  seen  and  heard 
that  declare  we  unto  you." 

Let  us  see  that  the  steps  we  are  taking 
are  kept  clear  and  distinct.     Sent  forth  to 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  1 77 

preach ;  sent  forth  to  preach  the  truth  of 
Christ ;  sent  forth  to  preach  the  truth  of 
Christ  to  our  own  age.  We  are  now  at  the 
third  step.  There  will  be  still  others  and  we 
must  consider  them  in  their  order. 

Those  first  students  had  to  understand 
Christ  and  His  religion.  Then  they  had  to 
interpret  both  to  their  generation.  Their 
work  was  not  easy  nor  simple.  The  letters 
of  John,  James,  Peter  and  Paul  which  are 
part  of  the  intellectual  output  of  that  first 
group  show  this.  The  writers  first  sought 
to  apply  their  Master's  teaching  to  their  age. 
We  are  more  numerous  than  they.  The 
accidents  of  the  task  have  changed.  Its 
essence  remains  unchanged.  We  have  to 
apply  Jesus'  teaching,  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity to  our  age.  Certain  implications 
confront  us  at  the  threshold  of  this  part  of 
our  discussion. 

In  order  to  apply  the  truth  of  Christ  to  the 
age  we  must  measurably  understand  the  age 
itself.  The  message  of  Jesus  was  in  nothing 
more  remarkable  than  in  its  local  and  tem- 
porary appropriateness.     In  our  admiration 


178        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

for  its  adaptation  to  all  times  and  all  ages  we 
sometimes  overlook  that  fact.  It  struck  its 
roots  into  the  ages  by  taking  root  in  its  own 
age.  Sometimes  it  is  said :  "  History  is 
never  antiquated  because  humanity  is  al- 
ways fundamentally  the  same.  Human 
nature  persists  through  the  ages,  truth  per- 
sists through  the  ages.  Therefore  let  us 
have  the  old  truth,  or  the  old  Gospel.'  Hold 
on ! — not  quite  so  easy  or  so  fast,  if  you 
please.  Such  vague  generalizations  are  the 
pitfalls  into  which  the  ministry  readily  falls, 
especially  a  lazy  ministry  posing  as  a  pious 
ministry.  Many  years  ago  when  I  was  a 
young  university  officer  the  Hon.  Andrew  D. 
White,  former  president  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, visited  Denver.  I  called  to  pay  my 
respects.  The  great  man  received  me  most 
graciously,  and  after  some  conversation  said  : 
"  I  will  give  you  a  bit  of  fundamental  educa- 
tional wisdom.  If  you  remember  it  you  may 
succeed  ;  if  you  forget  it  you  are  sure  to  fail. 
Every  institution  must  work  out  its  own 
problems  on  its  own  grounds."  I  smiled, 
but  he  was  right.     That  is  the  law  of  the 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  1 79 

farm,  the  school  and  the  kingdom.  Enlarge 
it  and  make  it  read  :  "  Every  institution 
must  work  out  its  own  problems  on  its  own 
grounds  and  in  its  own  times,"  and  it  fits  our 
case  and  most  other  cases.  The  nature  of 
soil  persists.  Sun  and  air  and  moisture  are 
as  they  were.  Corn  is  corn,  grain  is  grain, 
growth  is  growth  in  all  lands  and  centuries. 
But  farming  is  not  to-day  the  same  thing 
that  it  was  in  Abraham's  day,  nor  is  it  the 
same  thing  in  Illinois  or  Dakota  that  it  was, 
or  is,  in  Abraham's  country.  The  human 
faculties  persist,  truth  persists,  but  teaching 
is  not  quite  the  same  thing  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Socrates  or  in  his  country.  No 
more  is  preaching,  even  though  the  old 
gospel  be  preached  to  the  old  human  nature. 
One  cannot  detach  himself  either  from  the 
eternal  or  the  temporary.  It  is  the  universal 
law :  the  eternal  message  to  your  own 
grounds  and  your  own  times. 

Many  men  break  here  by  the  adoption  of 
a  too  easy  process.  Just  preach  the  old 
Gospel,  they  say,  as  if  that  were  ever  easy. 
I   shall  have  more  to  say  of  that  in  a  few 


l8o        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

minutes.  I  am  now  trying  to  say  that  if  a 
modern  minister  is  to  apply  Jesus'  teaching 
it  must  be  in  the  time  in  which  and  the  place 
where  that  modern  minister  lives.  Naturally 
then  there  is  involved  an  understanding  of 
that  time  and  place.  Do  I  need  say  that 
there  are  men  who  are  failing  at  this  point  ? 
They  treat  every  locality  in  the  same  fashion  ; 
city  and  country,  college  town  and  stock 
yards,  as  if  they  were  all  alike.  They  have 
preached  for  twenty-five  years  without  noting 
at  all  that  the  conditions  of  life  have  been 
revolutionized  in  that  time.  They  regard 
their  course  as  showing  consistency  and 
confidence  in  the  Gospel.  They  complain 
bitterly  because  a  modern  world  passes  them 
by,  and  they  apply  bad  names  to  that  modern 
world.  That  thing  they  name  consistency 
and  confidence  is  often  only  stupidity  and 
laziness.  You  will  not  minister  to  your  age 
unless  you  understand  the  age  as  well  as 
you  can.  And  by  this  I  mean  the  whole 
temper  of  the  age.  It  is  a  very  complex 
thing.  One  word  alone  will  not  characterize 
it.     Dr.  Van  Dyke  called  it  an  age  of  doubt, 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  l8l 

but  doubt  is  only  one  of  its  features.  It 
would  be  just  as  true  to  say  that  it  is  an  age 
eager  for  truth.  Others  call  it  an  age  of 
faith.  Others  term  it  an  age  of  commerce, 
but  this  is  also  partial.  So  with  the  terms 
expansion,  unrest,  great  fortunes,  industrial 
development.  They  are  all  accurate  and  all 
inadequate.  No  one  of  them  sufficiently 
characterizes  our  age.  Yet  you  must  know 
the  age  if  you  are  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  it. 
You  must  know  the  age  if  you  are  to  apply 
Christ's  teaching  even  to  a  small  town. 
There  is  no  obscure  place  anywhere.  The 
temper  of  the  age  penetrates  everywhere. 
"There  is  not  so  much  difference  as  there 
used  to  be  between  the  man  in  the  city  and 
the  man  on  the  farm.  The  man  in  the  city 
has  an  automobile ;  so  has  the  man  on  the 
farm.  The  man  in  the  city  has  his  daily 
paper  at  breakfast ;  so  has  the  man  on  the 
farm.  The  man  in  the  city  has  his  piano, 
and  phonograph,  and  library,  and  magazines, 
and  other  agencies  for  self-culture ;  so  has 
the  man  on  the  farm.  The  man  in  the  city 
sends  his  boys  and  girls  to  college ;  so  does 


l82        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

the  man  on  the  farm.  Each  has  his  intel- 
lectual, social,  and  spiritual  needs  which  are 
practically  alike." 

You  are  not  preachers  to  the  past  nor 
preachers  about  the  past.  You  are  preachers 
of  an  eternal  Gospel  in  time  and  you  must 
know  this  time  which  is  the  only  time  you 
have.  Do  not  pity  yourself  on  that  account. 
And  do  not  waste  your  life  condemning  the 
age.  Let  the  age  and  its  difficulties  be  your 
stimulus  and  challenge.  One  who  is  doing 
it  best  says :  "  Reason  and  faith  join  hands 
to  proclaim  that  the  God  of  the  old  times  is 
the  God  of  the  new  times ;  that  if  Christ's 
Spirit  was  immanent  in  the  Church  as  a  liv- 
ing power  in  the  first  century  or  the  fourth 
or  the  sixteenth,  it  is  not  less  immanent  in 
the  Christendom  of  the  twentieth — that  the 
social  movements  and  tumults  of  to-day  are 
the  very  waves  upon  which  the  Master's  feet 
come  walking "  (Lyman :  Preaching  in  the 
New  Age\ 

The  age  always  includes  Christ.  He  is 
the  eternal  contemporary.  He  fits  the  lan- 
guage of  modern  street  and  school  and  can  be 


WITH  A   MESSAGE  183 

interpreted  in  either.  I  was  very  slow  to  ac- 
cept any  phases  or  forms  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  until  one  day  that  phrase  "  survival 
of  the  fittest"  mixed  itself  up  with  Christ  and 
Christianity,  and  I  was  told  that  if  that  doc- 
trine is  true,  Christ  and  His  Christianity  have 
the  final  chance  for  permanence.  They  are 
the  fittest  truths  and  facts  alive  to-day.  This 
very  scientific  temper  makes  it  a  perfect  joy 
to  preach  Christ  to  the  age.  This  age  is 
vastly  better  for  a  true  preacher  than  an  un- 
scientific age  would  be. 

So  with  all  the  rest  of  the  characterizations, 
such  as  '*  age  of  capitalist,  and  age  of  social- 
ist." It  looks  like  the  fullness  of  times  again 
for  Christ.  Preaching  Christ  at  such  a  junc- 
tion surpasses  any  chance  that  any  previous 
age  has  offered.  Only  you  must  remember 
who  is  to  have  the  preeminence.  It  is  not  the 
capitalist  nor  the  socialist.     It  is  the  Christ. 

And  in  all  this  preaching  to  your  age  you 
are  to  be  a  prophet.  A  prophet's  message 
is  both  timely  and  permanent.  He  gets  it 
out  of  the  ages,  not  simply  out  of  the  ages 
past  or  those  to  come.     He  belongs  neither 


l84        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

to  the  conservatives  nor  the  radicals.  **  He 
refuses  to  be  side-tracked  either  on  the  *  Old 
School '  or  the  *  New  School '  rails."  There 
is  evening  and  there  is  morning,  and  they 
are  one  day  and  it  is  Christ's  day,  and  the 
prophet  knows  every  hour  of  it  and  makes 
Christ  the  radiant  Lord  of  them  all. 

We  are  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  men  in  the 
age  in  which  we  live.  Easy  and  vague  gen- 
eralizations expose  the  pulpit  to  contempt  as 
they  ought.  We  must  apply  the  truth  of 
Christ  to  our  age.  That  is  why  we  are  in 
the  School  of  Christ.  Many  a  man  under- 
stands the  times  of  Christ  far  better  than  he 
does  the  times  of  Roosevelt.  Many  a  man 
has  fairly  studied  the  truth  of  Christ  without 
learning  how  to  apply  it.  Take  an  illustra- 
tion. You  are  discussing  the  labour  prob- 
lem, or  the  problem  of  capital  and  labour. 
Before  you  get  through  you  will  tell  your 
audience  what  an  immense  and  troublesome 
problem  it  is.  Then  you  will  gather  your- 
self for  a  supreme  declaration  :  *'  I  tell  you, 
my  beloved  brethren,  the  only  cure  for  this 
great  problem  is  in  the  Ten  Commandments 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  185 

and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  Then  you 
will  sit  down  with  a  feeling  that  you  have 
said  it.  I  have  heard  that  said  more  than 
once  with  such  show  of  unction  that  I  won- 
der there  is  any  unction  left  in  the  world. 
What  would  you  think  of  a  physician  who 
should  cry  out  to  a  plague-stricken  com- 
munity that  the  remedy  for  this  epidemic  is 
medicine,  or  a  lawyer  who  should  cry  out 
that  the  cure  for  disorder  is  law,  or  a  teacher 
that  the  cure  for  ignorance  is  reading  ?  Do 
you  see  ?  That  truth  of  yours  is  a  general 
truism.  It  must  be  pressed  down  and  back 
upon  modern  life  in  detail  if  it  is  to  be  effect- 
ive. What  is  the  message  of  Jesus  to  the 
modern  man  of  wealth  ?  to  the  modern  man 
of  poverty?  the  application  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  to  the  modern  social  conditions  ?  If 
anybody  thinks  such  application  is  simple 
let  him  try  it  in  any  real  way  on  a  section  of 
Halsted  Street,  or  the  Bowery,  or  at  the 
Stock  Yards,  or  on  Wall  Street,  or  on  Fifth 
Avenue,  or  in  the  lumber  regions  of  Wiscon- 
sin, or  a  mining  camp  in  Montana,  or  in  the 
mills  of  the  South. 


l86        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE  MASTER 

The  application  of  Jesus'  teaching  to  men 
and  to  society  is  a  consummate  intellectual 
achievement.  There  are  cheap  ways,  me- 
chanical ways,  ineffectual  ways,  all  of  them 
in  vogue.  Men  miss  in  them  the  note  of 
real  authority,  though  there  is  plenty  of  the 
language  and  tone  of  authority.  Some  men 
make  up  in  the  assertion  of  authority  what 
they  lack  in  the  real  power  of  authority. 
Then  some  real  man  comes  along  and  studies 
the  Sabbath  question  in  a  dairy  country,  for 
example,  until  he  is  master  of  it,  and  brings 
to  it  in  the  very  spirit  of  Christ  the  teaching 
and  mind  of  Christ,  and  men  listen.  He, 
too,  starts  with  the  lesson  he  learned  in 
Christ's  School  that  the  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man,  just  as  the  patriot  starts  with  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  But  he  knows 
as  the  latter  does  that  the  securing  of  rational 
results  from  the  broad  principle  is  a  thing  of 
almost  infinite  difficulty  and  detail.  And 
he  takes  refuge  not  in  pious  vagueness,  but 
in  the  use  of  his  consecrated  brains  to  press 
the  eternal  principle  down  into  the  folds,  the 
wrinkles,  the  crevices  of  daily  life  and  subtle 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  [  187 

problems.  The  principle  must  be  made  to 
penetrate  like  leaven  and  light.  The  Holy- 
Spirit  Himself  has  no  higher  office  than  to 
interpret  the  teachings  of  Jesus  to  a  given 
age  and  place.  We  have  not  fallen  upon 
evil  days,  but  only  upon  other  days.  All  is 
not  lost.  It  is  only  changed.  Never  did  a 
true  interpreter  have  better  or  finer  oppor- 
tunity "  to  form  the  intellect  in  Christian  belief 
and   shape  the  age  in   Christian   righteous- 


ness." 


Still  let  us  keep  our  steps  clear.  Sent  forth 
to  preach,  to  preach  the  truth  of  Christ,  to 
preach  it  to  our  age  and  place.  A  word  has 
been  omitted,  though  it  may  by  implication 
be  in  the  words  "  truth  of  Christ."  But  this 
word  must  not  be  in  simply  by  implication. 
For  we  are  sent  forth  to  preach  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  to  our  age.  This  does  not  simplify 
our  task  or  make  it  easy.  *'  Gospel "  is  a 
good  word,  but  it  is  a  very  hard  word.  It 
could  not  be  used  any  earlier  in  the  course. 

For  preaching  the  Gospel  truly  to  a  given 
generation  is  the  high-water  mark  of  a 
preacher's    work    in    the    world.     Matthew 


l88        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

Arnold  invented  a  phrase  which  fairly  de- 
fines the  function  of  true  preaching :  **  the 
application  of  noble  ideas  to  life."  Arnold 
called  Emerson  **the  helper  and  friend  of 
those  who  would  live  in  the  spirit."  Dr. 
Gordon  says  that  '*  the  sphere  in  which  the 
preacher  should  move  is  at  the  intersection 
of  ideas  and  life."  Our  Master  defined  the 
function  of  truth  in  that  memorable  sentence : 
"  Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free."  In  one  of  our  earlier  studies 
we  found  ourselves  in  the  School  of  Christ  in 
order  to  hear  what  Jesus  said.  There  we 
learned  these  noble  ideas  which  are  to  be 
applied  to  life.  We  discovered  our  Master 
at  the  very  centre  of  that  meeting-place  of 
life  and  truth.  He  chose  us  that  we  might 
be  with  Him  at  that  centre,  that  we  might 
acquire  that  truth  which  sets  men  free,  see 
its  relation  to  life,  and  that  He  might  send  us 
forth  to  preach  it.  It  is  because  life  is  so 
valuable  that  truth  is  so  important.  We  are 
rapidly  completing  the  circle  here.  Chosen 
by  Him,  taught  His  truth,  sent  to  preach — 
these  are  the  words.     But  they  are  not  com- 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  189 

fortable  words.  With  their  frightful  compU- 
cations  they  break  in  on  the  peace  of  this 
quiet  hour  Hke  a  storm.  For  this  is  the  thing 
we  ought  to  be  doing  better  than  anything 
else  is  being  done  in  this  world.  We  ought 
to  be  preaching  better  than  any  physician 
practices,  or  any  lawyer  pleads,  or  any  teacher 
instructs,  or  any  merchant  trades  or  any  offi- 
cer rules.  This  is  at  once  the  hardest  and 
the  highest  thing  men  are  asked  to  do.  That 
it  shall  be  well  done  is  of  consequence  to  the 
world. 

Yet  we  treat  it  as  though  it  were  the  easiest 
of  all  things.  And  the  very  best  form  of  it 
we  treat  in  the  most  flippant  fashion.  A  man 
who  has  ostensibly  been  in  the  School  of 
Christ  to  hear  what  Jesus  said  and  been  sent 
forth  by  Him  to  preach,  will  stand  on  the 
Sabbath  day  before  an  immortal  congrega- 
tion, large  or  small.  All  week  this  man  has 
been  busy,  doing  many  useful  things,  making 
many  calls,  eating  many  dinners,  drinking 
much  tea,  raising  much  money,  peddling 
much  gossip,  burying  many  dead,  and  on 
Sunday  he  looks  at  his  immortal  congrega- 


igo        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

tion  and  says :  **  My  brethren,  beloved,  I 
have  been  so  occupied  all  the  week  that  I 
have  had  no  time  to  prepare.  I  will  just 
preach  you  a  simple  little  gospel  sermon." 
Then  that  audience  ought  to  arise  and  re- 
strain him  by  force  from  doing  that  thing. 
In  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  cases  the 
man  is  going  to  talk  pure  commonplace. 
He  is  throwing  over  his  talk  the  noblest  of 
all  words  just  to  hide  the  utter  nakedness  of 
it.  Men  will  be  restrained  from  criticism 
of  it  if  he  calls  it  a  gospel  sermon,  when 
they  ought  to  blister  the  preacher  and  the 
sermon  with  their  righteous  wrath.  If  you 
must  do  an  unworthy  thing  refrain  from 
calling  it  by  that  noble  name. 

You  know  the  unhappy  meaning  that 
phrase  has  come  to  bear  in  our  ecclesias- 
tical usage.  Its  application  to  a  man  is 
almost  fatal.  It  advertises  and  does  not 
cover  the  multitude  of  his  shortcomings. 
Preaching  the  Gospel  to  an  age  is  the  hard- 
est thing  a  man  has  to  do  in  this  world.  A 
true  gospel  sermon  is  the  highest  reach  of 
a  preacher's  power.     It  is  like  plain  cook- 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  I9I 

ing,  the   supreme   test   of  one's  skill.     The 
cook  who  can  cook  beefsteak  and  potatoes, 
bake  bread  and  make  coffee  which  will  bear 
the  test  of  life  is  at  the  head  of  the  profession. 
A  good  Gospel  preacher,  the  man  who  can 
preach  a  Gospel  sermon,  may  walk  in  front 
of  his  procession.     I  should  be  false  to  our 
Master  if  I   did  not  make  this  protest  and 
warning.     Truth  is  not  had  for  idle  asking 
nor  preached  as  a  pastime.     "The  paths  of 
men  are  no  longer  plain  ;  they  cross  and  re- 
cross  with  bewildering  confusion ;  the  world 
thickens,  and  he  who  makes  too  easy  a  thing 
of  duty  or  of  truth  only  adds  in  time  one 
more   bewildered   or   wayward   soul   to   the 
care  of  the  Great  Shepherd  and  His  church." 
The  finest  energy  of  each  new  age  is  de- 
manded   by   the    search   for   truth   and   the 
application  of  truth  to  life.     This  is  the  most 
serious  and  exacting  task  laid  upon  us  men. 
We  have  to  learn  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
and  apply  the  truth  to  ourselves  and  to  our 
fellow  men  so  that,  as  Des  Cartes  said,  *'  they 
and  we  may  walk  sure-footedly  in  this  life." 
Now  I  know,  of  course,  how  many  other 


192        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

things  the  modern  preacher  has  to  do.  They 
need  not  be  named.  We  all  know  them  and 
know  the  place  they  occupy  in  our  lives.  A 
young  woman  was  telling  us  the  other  day 
about  her  brother,  a  senior  in  college.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  glee  club,  the  football 
team,  the  baseball  team,  the  tennis  club,  the 
editorial  staff,  a  literary  society  and  a  fra- 
ternity. I  remarked  that  he  must  find  it  hard 
to  get  time  for  study.  The  young  woman 
replied :  "  Oh,  he  does  not  let  his  studies 
interfere  with  his  regular  work."  It  was  a 
playful  remark,  but  I  thought  at  once  of  the 
men  who  do  not  let  their  preaching  interfere 
with  their  regular  work.  I  know  how  they 
have  been  exhorted  about  pastoral  visiting, 
collections,  being  good  managers,  looking 
after  the  business  interests  and  all  the  rest. 
All  that  is  important  and  necessary,  but  I 
would  not  be  true  if  I  did  not  tell  you  that 
the  one  thing  the  modern  church  will  not 
and  does  not  forgive  is  poor  preaching.  And 
it  ought  not  to  forgive  it.  One  of  the  best 
of  our  younger  preachers  wails  about  the 
condition  in  which  ministers  have  **  lost  faith 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  I93 

in  the  importance  of  their  sermons  and  their 
ambition  to  make  a  sermon  what  it  ought  to 
be."  He  adds :  "  Rome  was  near  her  fall 
when  the  priests  at  her  altars  joked  about 
the  mass.  It  is  a  sign  of  skepticism  and  de- 
cadence in  the  Protestant  pulpit  that  so  many 
ministers  can  joke  about  their  sermons  and 
listen  to  attacks  upon  the  work  of  preaching 
without  indignant  protest  or  swift  rebuke. 
The  greatest  danger  confronting  the  church 
of  Christ  in  America  to-day  is  a  possible 
decadence  of  the  pulpit.  Let  the  pulpit  de- 
cay and  the  cause  of  Christ  is  lost.  Nothing 
can  take  the  place  of  preaching.  There  is 
no  power  under  heaven  equal  to  a  God- 
inspired  pulpit.  Nothing  can  take  the  place 
of  the  exposition  of  God's  word  by  a  man 
whose  lips  have  been  touched  by  a  live  coal 
from  off  God's  altar.  An  ignorant  pulpit  is 
the  worst  of  all  scourges,  an  ineffective  pulpit 
the  most  lamentable  of  all  scandals." 

And  yet  men  aspire  to  be  managers,  and 
pride  themselves  upon  being  "hustlers,"  and 
add  complacently  that  "they  cannot  preach 
much."     And  men  say  that  of  many  of  us. 


194        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

Cannot  preach  much !  Not  much  of  a 
preacher !  After  such  an  experience,  in  such 
a  school,  with  such  a  Master,  holding  such  a 
message !  Cannot  preach  much !  When 
life  lies  at  your  hand  to  have  these  noble 
ideas  applied  to  it  1  Cannot  preach  much  I 
After  hearing  Jesus  pray,  and  talk  to  one  and 
many,  while  He  opened  the  heavens  to  our 
view !  Cannot  preach  much !  After  look- 
ing upon  birth  and  death,  childhood  and 
youth,  work  and  rest,  trial  and  victory,  love 
and  marriage,  joy  and  sorrow,  hope  and 
fear,  men  in  sin  and  men  in  God,  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  the  old  life  and 
the  new,  the  souls  of  men  and  the  truth  of 
God — after  looking  upon  all  these  with  the 
eyes  of  Christ  and  in  the  company  of  Christ ! 
Cannot  preach  much !  With  history  and 
Psalm,  and  Gospel  and  living  Epistle  burst- 
ing with  truth,  with  Holy  Ghost  waiting  ever 
to  touch  again  the  lips  of  earnest,  learning 
man !  Cannot  preach  much !  With  the 
truth  of  Christ  for  your  message,  the  aim 
of  Christ  for  your  aim,  the  men  for  whom  He 
lived  and  died  for  your  audience !     Cannot 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  1 95 

preach  much  !  With  life  and  truth  and  liv- 
ing men  and  living  God  all  for  your  own ! 
Cannot  preach  much !  Oh,  in  heaven's 
name  what  can  you  do  ?  Perhaps  you  can 
hustle  or  manage,  or  peddle  small  gossip,  or 
deliver  rations  I  That  is  what  men  say  about 
many  of  us.  Their  judgment  is  bad  enough. 
But  how  would  you  like  to  come  back  to  the 
Master  and  tell  Him  that  you  could  not 
preach  much  ?  What  is  the  matter  ?  Is  His 
truth  wrong?  Is  it  not  preachable?  Does 
modern  humanity  not  need  it  ?  Is  the 
apostolic  spirit  entirely  lacking?  Or  do  you 
take  your  preaching  lightly  and  indifferently  ? 
Emerson  once  said,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven, 
of  his  own  lectures  :  ''Ten  decorous  speeches 
and  not  one  ecstasy,  not  one  rapture,  not  one 
thunderbolt.  Eloquence  therefore  there  was 
none.  ...  I  spend  myself  prudently.  I 
economize.  I  cheapen,  whereof  nothing 
grand  ever  grew."  I  heard  a  well-known 
man  preach  within  a  few  years.  He  did  not 
care  for  his  stuff  nor  did  anybody  else.  The 
hour  for  a  sermon  had  come.  He  had 
thrown  one  together.     It  sounded  as  if  he 


196        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

had  done  it  on  the  way  to  the  church  in  the 
street  car.  Months  afterwards  I  found  the 
notes  of  the  sermon  in  his  pulpit  Bible.  It 
looked  as  it  had  sounded.  I  say  nothing  as 
to  methods  of  preparation.  Let  every  man 
be  fully  persuaded  by  his  own  experience.  I 
am  only  pleading  now  that  preaching  the 
Gospel  be  highly  regarded  by  us  and  that  it 
be  the  real  application  of  the  teaching  of 
Christ  to  life.  Where  this  is  not  done  the 
pulpit  has  lost  its  power.  Wherever  it  is 
done  the  preacher  is  on  the  throne.  Life 
gathers  about  the  man  who  is  really  doing 
something  for  life. 

Here  perhaps  as  well  as  anywhere,  we 
may  speak  of  the  preacher  as  a  prophet. 
That  is  a  very  popular  word  among  us,  as 
the  word  priest  is  very  unpopular.  When 
we  want  to  praise  a  man  we  call  him  a 
prophet.  The  term  has  ruined  a  good  many 
men.  It  does  not  seem  quite  safe  to  call  a 
modern  man  a  prophet.  Still  a  prophet  he 
must  be.  I  quite  approved  the  title  of  an 
article  which  appeared  a  few  years  ago : 
"  Wanted :     Some    Real    Prophets."       The 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  I97 

prophet  speaks  of  God,  in  behalf  of  God. 
He  must  be  a  certain  kind  of  man.  One 
who  has  been  in  the  School  of  Christ  ought 
always  to  have  such  a  living,  burning  mes- 
sage from  God  to  men.  It  is  easy  to  lose 
this  sense.  Dr.  Jefferson  declares :  *'  It  is 
easy  for  the  pulpit  to  decay.  The  prophet 
has  always  had  a  tendency  to  degenerate 
into  the  priest.  The  man  who  speaks  for 
God  is  always  prone  to  slip  down  into  the 
man  who  performs  ceremonies  for  God. 
And  every  time  a  prophet  degenerates  into 
a  priest  a  new  darkness  falls  upon  the  world.'* 
Still  the  prophet  was  rather  a  partial  figure 
though  a  very  real  one.  Surely  we  come 
nearer  to  the  truth  when  we  say  that  the 
modern  preacher  must  be  a  prophet  to  in- 
spire and  instruct,  to  speak  for  the  Eternal 
God,  to  apply  Christ's  teaching  which  he 
has  learned  in  Christ's  School.  The  modern 
preacher  must  also  be  a  priest  to  minister 
and  serve  and  sacrifice  after  the  fashion  of 
the  true  High  Priest  in  whose  prophetic- 
priestly  school  he  has  been.  Shall  I  say  the 
rest  of  it  ?     He  must  be  a  King,  not  to  rule, 


198        SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

but  to  lead  God's  people  in  all  real  life. 
Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  Teacher,  Servant, 
Leader, — all  these  high  meanings  are  in  that 
noble  word, — preacher  I 

Have  I  made  clear  the  whole  of  this  thing 
I  have  been  trying  to  say  ?  Remember  that 
I  quoted  Matthew  Arnold  on  **  the  applica- 
tion of  noble  ideas  to  life."  And  Dr.  Gordon : 
"The  sphere  in  which  the  preacher  should 
move  is  at  the  intersection  of  ideas  and  life." 
And  Jesus :  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  I  might  have 
quoted  St.  Paul  about  "speaking  the  truth 
in  love."  All  this  will  bear  a  little  closer 
study.  The  preacher  has  his  duty  to  truth 
and  his  duty  to  life.  Men  easily  go  astray 
here.  One  becomes  a  philosopher,  a  searcher 
after  truth,  the  possessor  of  noble  ideas.  He 
loves  to  study,  as  he  ought.  He  loves 
truth  and  likes  to  be  classified  among  its 
possessors.  The  other  becomes  a  missionary 
or  a  philanthropist.  He  loves  men.  He 
moves  among  them  busily  with  open  but 
empty  hands.  You  know  both  classes,  both 
less   than  half  efficient.     A  famous  scholar 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  199 

tells  his  experience :  "  I  had  prepared  a 
sermon  which  had  been,  I  doubt  not,  profit- 
able to  me,  but  which  was  so  utterly  ineffect- 
ive as  a  sermon  that  I  asked  a  discerning 
friend  what  was  the  difficulty  with  it.  His 
reply  was  the  best  criticism  I  ever  received. 
'You  seemed  to  me,'  he  said,  *to  be  more 
concerned  about  the  truth  than  about  men.' " 
That  is  it.  On  the  other  hand  I  heard  one 
of  the  best  of  men  recently  who  had  come  to 
care  for  men  so  much  that  he  had  nothing 
for  them  at  all.  He  had  long  lost  the  divine 
sense  of  truth's  value  to  men,  or  the  place  of 
truth  in  the  redemption  of  men.  You  see 
preaching  the  Gospel  is  not  an  academic, 
nor  an  administrative,  nor  a  commercial 
process.  It  is  a  redemptive  agency.  It 
looks  both  ways,  towards  Jesus  the  Redeemer 
and  towards  the  unredeemed.  "  The  pulpit 
is  not  a  forum  for  the  display  of  truth,  nor  a 
desk  for  the  indifferent  utterance  of  truth, 
nor  a  market  for  the  sale  of  truth."  The 
man  sent  by  Christ  out  of  the  School  of 
Christ  to  preach  has  Christ's  own  redemptive 
mission  to  fulfill.     He  is  the  herald  of  salva- 


200        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

tion.  He  bears  on  his  heart  a  cross  for  men. 
He  holds  in  his  hand  Christ's  truth  for  men's 
redemption.  He  takes  Christ's  view  of 
truth.  He  takes  Christ's  attitude  to  men. 
Dr.  Pentecost  tells  this  story :  He  preached 
one  day  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Bonar  and 
revelled  in  the  preaching  as  a  man  sometimes 
will  and  always  ought.  At  the  close  Dr. 
Bonar  came  up  and  said  tenderly :  "  You 
love  to  preach,  do  you  not?"  ''Yes,  I  do," 
said  Dr.  Pentecost  quickly.  "Do  you  love 
the  men  to  whom  you  preach  ? "  said  Dr. 
Bonar  quietly.  That  cuts  deeper.  The 
preacher  who  just  loves  preaching  will  be 
careful  of  his  subjects.  The  true  preacher, 
loving  preaching  as  Christ's  vital  agency  for 
bringing  His  saving  truth  to  men,  will  be 
careful  of  his  objects  in  preaching.  "Men 
say  I  ramble,"  said  Rowland  Hill,  "  but  if  I 
ramble  it  is  because  you  ramble  and  1  must 
ramble  after  you.  They  say  I  do  not  stick 
to  my  subject,  but,  thank  God,  I  stick  to  my 
object,  viz.,  to  win  your  souls  to  God."  The 
preacher  will  apply  noble  ideas  to  life  for 
life's   sake.     He   will    bring   truth    to    men 


WITH  A  MESSAGE  20I 

that  men  may  get  free.  He  will  bring 
Christ's  teaching  to  men  that  they  may  be 
reconciled  with  God.  He  will  test  every- 
thing he  does  by  its  fruit  in  character  and 
life.  He  will  declare  truth  because  he  loves 
the  truth  and  loves  the  men  to  whom  he 
preaches  it. 

And  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  so  rich  and 
majestic.  And  there  is  no  other.  The 
gospel  of  evolution  which  some  men  have 
preached,  the  gospel  of  anti-evolution  which 
other  men  have  preached ;  the  gospel  of 
higher  criticism  and  the  gospel  of  anti- 
higher  criticism  which  some  men  are  preach- 
ing, as  if  any  of  them  were  gospels  through 
which  men  could  come  to  Christ  and  be 
saved,  are  all  alike  intruders  and  false  sub- 
stitutes for  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed 
God.  Men  cut  the  nerve  of  their  power,  cut 
the  nerve  of  their  connection  with  the  real 
Gospel,  cut  the  nerve  of  their  connection  with 
their  age  and  lose  their  power  of  appeal  to 
their  age  when  they  lay  the  stress  of  the 
Gospel  upon  anything  but  the  Gospel.  And 
this  loss  of  power  in  our  generation  is  the 


202         SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

unspeakable  tragedy  which  has  befallen  many 
sons  of  light. 

This  age  is  many  kinds  of  an  age.  Reac- 
tion and  obscurantism  will  appeal  to  part  of 
it.  Radicalism  will  appeal  to  part  of  it. 
Small  truth  will  appeal  to  part  of  it.  And 
any  man  is  free  to  make  his  partial  appeal  if 
he  chooses  to  do  so.  And  the  applause  with 
which  partial  appeal  is  greeted  by  the  par- 
tial deceives  many  into  believing  that  they 
are  really  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
But  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  not 
a  member  of  a  party.  ''  He  is  neither  a  Tory 
nor  a  Liberal."  He  has  not  a  message  for 
any  few,  however  chosen  and  select.  Our 
fathers  fought  us  free  from  that  in  all  its  ap- 
plications and  implications.  Before  us  who 
have  been  sent  forth  by  Christ  stands  hu- 
manity stripped  of  the  accidents  of  condition 
or  opinion.  And  before  this  essential  and 
universal  humanity  we  stand,  ambassadors 
of  God,  pleading  in  Christ's  stead  with  this 
humanity,  preaching  the  Gospel  to  this  hu- 
manity, that  it  may  be  reconciled  to  God. 
"  Only  the  Gospel  will  bear  the  stress  of  a 


WITH   A  MESSAGE  203 

gospel."  One  may  pose  as  a  conservative 
and  think  himself  therefore  both  pious  and 
orthodox,  when  he  is  neither ;  or  he  may  pose 
as  a  liberal  and  think  himself  therefore  both 
honest  and  free,  when  he  is  neither.  The 
test  of  a  man  is  not  the  class  with  which  he 
ranks  himself  or  the  zeal  with  which  he  con- 
demns all  others  than  those  in  his  class.  This 
is  the  test :  Does  he  know  what  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  is,  in  its  essence,  in  its  historic,  its 
present,  its  eternal  beauty  and  power,  and 
does  he  bring  it  like  the  Master  Himself  to 
the  men  of  to-day  in  the  language  of  life? 
Can  you  bear  this  test?  The  message  of 
many  has  sagged.  The  message  of  many 
others  has  dwindled.  Many  are  playing 
upon  a  single  string,  long  since  worn  out. 
And  the  remedy  is  getting  into  Christ's  per- 
fect Gospel  and  preaching  that  in  its  fullness 
and  richness,  not  in  its  hardness  nor  its  soft- 
ness. His  Gospel  for  the  individual  will 
alone  save  personal  life.  His  Gospel  of  the 
kingdom  will  alone  save  organized  life.  This 
in  its  completeness  is  our  only  claim  to  a 
hearing  to-day. 


204        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

You  remember  the  picture  Christian  saw 
in  Interpreter's  house,  which  was  Bunyan's 
conception  of  the  Preacher  : 

'*It  had  eyes  upHft  to  Heaven,  the  best 
of  Books  in  his  hand,  the  Law  of  Truth  was 
written  upon  his  Hps,  the  World  was  behind 
his  bacl<: ;  it  stood  as  if  it  pleaded  with  Men, 
and  a  Crown  of  Gold  did  hang  over  its  head." 

We  must  say  yet  one  more  word.  I  am 
loath  however  to  leave  this  point  concerning 
which  I  have  been  speaking  or  to  add  an- 
other, though  I  did  want  to  say  something 
about  preaching  as  the  teaching  of  religion. 
This  is  the  current  movement  so  full  of  prom- 
ise. I  think  I  must  forbear  and  hold  fast  to 
this  one  idea — the  "application  of  noble  ideas 
to  life."  Noble  ideas — that  is  what  we  went 
into  the  School  of  Christ  to  obtain.  That  is 
what  we  did  obtain.  We  must  receive  them 
without  corruption  and  apply  them  to  life 
without  addition  or  subtraction.  It  took 
courage  to  go  up  the  mountainside  to  see 
Christ  face  to  face.  It  takes  new  courage  to 
be  an  interpreter  of  Christ  to  our  age.  It  is 
so   much  easier  to  do  some  lesser  or  other 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  205 

task,  or  it  is  so  much  easier  to  preach  to 
some  other  age  or  about  some  other  age  past 
or  future.  We  shrink  from  being  just  in  the 
front  of  a  battle  that  is  raging.  We  parade 
our  heroism  for  battles  that  were,  or  far-off 
dangers  that  are  to  be.  God  forgive  us. 
We  have  been  in  the  School  of  Christ.  We 
have  heard  Him  speak.  We  have  learned 
what  He  is.  The  application  of  noble  ideas 
to  life  means  at  last  preaching  Christ  to  our 
generation.  The  word  is  out  at  last — preach- 
ing Christ !  Cant  has  abused  this  term,  shal- 
lowness has  cursed  it.  Behind  these  two 
words  laziness,  incompetence,  reaction  and 
bigotry  have  tried  to  hide.  Over  a  vast 
body  of  pious  humbug,  bitter  denunciation, 
narrowness  and  cant  this  royal  robe  has  been 
thrown.  It  is  the  fate  of  all  great  ideas  and 
terms  to  shrink  in  the  hands  of  men.  Wor- 
ship tends  to  become  idolatry,  faith  to 
become  credulity,  liberty  to  become  license 
unless  they  are  eternally  held  to  their  higher 
meanings.  We  must  not  shun  a  real  word 
because  of  its  abuses.  We  must  redeem  it 
from  the  low  uses  and  restore  it  or  advance 


206        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

it  to  its  own  true  place.  Companions  of 
Christ,  Students  of  Christ,  Preachers  of 
Christ !  How  easily  the  words  roll  from  the 
tongue  and  how  easily  even  these  words  be- 
come a  shibboleth.  Preaching  Christ,  men 
say,  and  mean  by  it  something  that  never 
could  get  into  the  New  Testament.  Preach- 
ing Christ  goes  back  to  the  teaching,  the  ac- 
tivity, the  personal  life  of  that  historic  Jesus 
who  called  us  into  His  School  that  we  might 
be  with  Him.  Such  preaching  has  its  roots 
in  a  perfect  knowledge  of  Him  and  His  truth. 
It  does  make  a  difference  that  He  was  and 
what  He  was.  In  the  words  "Jesus  is  the 
Christ,"  all  the  words  are  emphatic.  We 
learned  our  message  in  His  presence.  We 
preach  Jesus  as  Lord.  We  do  this  in  the 
temple,  we  do  this  at  home ;  we  do  this  on 
the  way  to  Gaza  ;  we  do  this  in  modern  An- 
tioch  to  modern  Greeks ;  we  do  this  in 
Athens  to  Epicurean  and  Stoic.  We  preach 
Him  to  the  Gentiles,  and  even  in  controver- 
sial days  we  rejoice  that  Christ  is  preached. 
This  is  the  Christ  "Whom  we  proclaim,  ad- 
monishing  every  man  and   teaching  every 


WITH   A   MESSAGE  207 

man  in  all  wisdom,  that  we  may  present 
every  man  perfect  in  Christ"  (Colossians  i.  28). 

This  keeps  our  ministry  personal.  This 
makes  us  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ.  From 
Him  we  learn.  With  Him  we  live.  By  Him 
we  are  sent.  Him  we  preach.  Preaching 
Christ  is  the  noblest  and  the  hardest  thing  in 
this  old  world.  No  man  will  boast  of  doing 
it.  If  he  boast  he  is  probably  not  doing  it. 
If  a  man  be  really  doing  it  he  will  be  found 
walking  in  the  valley  of  humility,  crying  out 
of  a  hurt  heart  that  he  does  it  so  unworthily. 
This  preaching  will  redeem  any  ministry 
from  partialness,  pettiness,  staleness  and 
commonplaceness.  It  will  make  preaching 
in  experience  as  it  is  in  fact  the  richest,  no- 
blest thing  in  the  world.  Companions  of 
Christ,  students  of  Christ,  preachers  of  Christ ; 
chosen  by  Him,  to  be  with  Him,  sent  forth 
by  Him,  to  preach  Him !  Down  on  your 
knees  that  you  may  do  it  well. 

I  close  this  lecture  with  these  sentences 
from  one  of  those  preachers  who  in  their  too 
brief  lifetime  did  it  best.  *'  I  add  but  one 
word  more :  the  burden  that  weighs  down 


208        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

many  a  man's  ministry  is  the  sense  of  trite- 
ness and  commonplaceness.  Oh,  the  wretch- 
edness of  feeUng  how  often  this  has  been 
said  which  I  am  going  to  say  next  Sunday ! 
Oh,  the  struggles  and  contortions  to  shake 
off  that  misery  and  say  something  new  and 
be  original !  But  that  is  all  as  if  the  glass 
reproached  itself  with  colourlessness  and  tried 
to  stain  itself  with  red  and  green  that  men 
might  look  at  it.  No ;  the  white  glass  is 
saved  from  commonplaceness  by  the  glory 
of  the  picture  that  looks  through  it.  And 
the  redemption  of  our  sermons  as  of  our 
characters  from  insignificance  into  dignity 
and  worth  must  come  not  from  fantastic 
novelties  which  they  invent  for  themselves, 
but  from  their  bearing  simple  and  glorious 
witness  to  their  Lord.  Do  not  fear  triteness. 
Only  really  hold  your  own  new  life  honestly 
up  to  Christ  in  thoughtful  and  loving  conse- 
cration, and  men  will  see  through  you  some- 
thing of  that  Master  and  Saviour  who  is 
forever  new." 

Brethren,  let   us  "continue  steadfastly  in 
prayer  and  in  the  ministry  of  the  word." 


LECTURE  V 

SENT    FORTH    BY    THE 
MASTER  :  WITH  A  PROGRAM 


LECTURE  V 

SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER: 
WITH  A  PROGRAM 

LET  us  recall  again  the  familiar  pas- 
sage which  has  been  at  the  centre  of 
our  study  all  along.  **  He  appointed 
twelve  that  they  might  be  with  Him,  that 
He  might  send  them  forth  to  preach  and  to 
have  authority  to  cast  out  demons."  Of 
course  this  statement  has  not  been  treated 
as  though  it  exhausted  or  even  fully  stated 
the  subject.  It  has  been  interpreted  all  the 
time  in  connection  with  other  statements 
bearing  on  the  same  subject.  Jesus  was  a 
teacher — "  never  man  so  spake."  He  was  a 
doer  of  mighty  works  and  of  common  good 
— "  He  went  about  doing  good."  He  was  a 
personality,  Himself  the  centre  of  His  teach- 
ing and  illustration  of  all  His  activity.  In 
these  features  of  His  life  we  have  been  learn- 
ing of  Him.  By  Him  we  are  now  sent  forth, 
with   a   proclamation  and  with  a  program. 

211 


212        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

Preaching  we  have  considered.  To-day  we 
touch  another  line  of  suggestion  :  Sent  forth 
to  be  doers  of  a  word  of  which  we  have  been 
hearers ;  sent  forth  with  authority  to  cast  out 
demons ;  sent  forth  to  go  greater  works. 
**Ye  are  My  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I 
command  you."  There  are  those  who  claim 
full  admission  to  Christ's  inner  circle  because 
they  believe  and  repeat  what  He  said.  Be- 
lief, with  them,  is  the  exclusive  test  of  ortho- 
doxy. But  orthodoxy  evidently  involves  the 
plan  of  Christ  quite  as  truly  as  it  does  the 
teaching  of  Christ.  I  would  like  to  be  called 
one  of  the  friends  of  Christ,  and  called  that 
by  His  own  lips.  The  way  to  that  privilege 
is  the  way  of  service. 

Three  terms  confront  us  to-day  at  the  out- 
set— authority,  evil  spirits  and  greater 
works.  Authority  is  not  a  popular  word. 
It  has  been  much  abused  in  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  other  circles  and  has  come  to  have 
rather  an  ugly  look.  It  will  be  well  for  us 
to  redeem  the  term  from  its  evil  associations, 
if  we  can,  and  to  set  the  thing  itself  in  its 
true  place.     For  it  has  a  true  place,  as  I  think 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  213 

we  shall  see.  Our  interest  in  it  is  not 
theoretical  or  academic.  In  order  to  reach  a 
fair  practical  understanding  of  the  term  we 
must  study  it  in  Jesus'  practical  exercise  of 
it.  What  authority  did  He  exercise  ?  What 
authority  did  He  confer  or  delegate  ?  What 
He  exercised  bore  upon  His  program.  What 
He  confers  bears  upon  ours. 

We  must  at  once  be  impressed  with  the 
scope  of  Jesus'  authority  and  the  restraints 
of  it ;  its  absoluteness  at  many  points  and 
its  reserves  at  many  others.  It  does  not 
puzzle  us,  nor  startle  us,  nor  offend  us  as 
seen  in  Him.  Whether  exercised  in  the 
realm  of  teaching,  or  exercised  over  nature, 
over  evil,  or  over  conduct  it  all  seems  per- 
fectly natural.  Men  who  heard  Him  occasion- 
ally marvelled,  but  we  do  not.  And  His 
authority  was  never  imposed  in  a  hard  and 
arbitrary  way.  He  assumed  to  be,  and,  I 
think,  showed  Himself  to  be  "  supreme 
Master  in  the  ethical  domain "  ;  supreme 
Master  over  nature  in  the  interest  of  life  ; 
supreme  Master  in  the  realm  of  religion,  and 
supreme  Master  over  evil.     But  His  mani- 


214        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

festation  of  authority  is  unique.  He  had  no 
examples  to  follow  and  has  had  too  few  imi- 
tators. One  seeking  in  His  conduct  warrant 
for  ecclesiastical  or  civil  tyranny  will  fail  to 
find  it.  His  authority  was  the  most  compel- 
ling and  the  least  exacting  in  history. 

Still  we  are  not  called  to  praise  it.  We 
are  only  set  to  understand  it,  and  to  under- 
stand it  not  as  a  speculative  or  academic 
matter,  but  as  a  purely  personal  one.  We 
are  not  making  a  philosophy  but  a  ministry 
of  help  and  power.  His  authority  was  the 
authority  of  one  speaking  the  truth  best 
worth  believing,  having  the  program  best 
worth  following,  and  being  the  person  best 
worth  obeying.  He  claimed  the  obedience 
of  men,  but  did  not  break  their  wills  by 
superimposing  His  own.  He  justified  His 
claim  upon  their  lives  by  the  character  of  His 
own  life  and  the  use  to  which  He  proposed 
to  put  theirs.  He  called  for  the  belief  of 
men  in  the  realm  of  religion.  He  justified 
that  claim  by  the  truths  He  revealed  and 
taught.  They  were  worthy  of  belief.  Upon 
many  subjects  He  did  not  speak.     He  has 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  215 

left  a  larger  area  of  liberty  and  has  more 
perfectly  preserved  liberty  within  the  area 
of  His  revelation  than  any  other  great  re- 
ligious teacher.  He  was  the  master,  not 
the  slave,  of  nature.  He  was  the  master,  not 
the  slave,  of  evil.  Men  acknowledging  His 
mastery  do  not  lose  their  liberty. 

These  seem  to  me  the  areas  in  which,  for 
all  practical  purposes.  His  authority  has 
meaning  for  us.  He  claimed  men  for  the 
kingdom.  He  delegated  that  authority  also 
to  us.  In  His  name  we  also  may  claim  men 
from  their  own  lives  for  His  service.  He 
spoke  on  the  fundamental  matters  of  religion, 
of  religious  life  and  truth,  without  doubt  or 
uncertainty.  He  delegated  that  certainty  on 
these  mighty  matters  to  us.  He  used  nature 
for  His  kingdom.  He  authorizes  us  to  do 
the  same — not  always  in  the  same  way  but 
in  the  same  spirit.  The  material  world  is 
the  servant,  not  the  lord,  of  the  things  and 
purposes  of  Christ.  Wealth  does  not  belong 
to  men,  it  belongs  to  Him.  He  was  lord  over 
unclean  spirits.  It  never  occurred  to  Him 
that  evil  was  His  master.     He  gave  author- 


2l6        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

ity  over  evil  to  those  whom  He  sent  forth. 
He  saved  His  own  authority  from  reproach 
by  the  way  He  exercised  it.  He  gives  to  us 
a  perfectly  defensible  authority  to  be  exer- 
cised in  His  name  and  in  His  manner. 
Authority  in  these  matters,  exercised  in 
Christ's  name,  in  His  spirit,  with  His  dis- 
cernment and  restraint  and  for  His  purposes 
is  beyond  all  criticism  or  objection.  When 
it  gets  beyond  the  region  in  which  He  exer- 
cised it  and  far  beyond  that  in  which  He 
delegated  it ;  when  it  loses  His  insight  and 
is  exercised  in  a  temper  wholly  unlike  His 
own ;  when  it  becomes  unrestrained  and 
tyrannical,  and  is  exercised  for  secondary 
and  unchristlike  purposes,  then  authority 
becomes  unspeakably  ugly  and  offensive. 
The  authority  of  Christ  in  the  realms  in  which 
He  exercised  it  is  the  most  beautiful  thing  in 
the  history  of  personal  influence.  Ecclesias- 
tical tyranny,  exercised  in  realms  He  never 
pretended  to  control,  is  one  of  the  ugliest 
exhibitions  which  the  Christian  centuries 
have  to  show.  We  have  not  always  kept 
the   balance,   or   the  spirit,  or  observed  the 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  21 7 

area  within  which  authority  is  ours.  Men 
have  ever  been  prone  to  exercise  or  assume 
an  authority  not  given  them  and  to  ignore 
that  which  Jesus  bestowed.  Part  of  our 
struggle  in  the  Christian  church  has  been  to 
keep  authority  where  it  belonged,  and  to 
preserve  the  emphasis  at  the  right  point. 
Leaders  in  the  church,  for  example,  have 
claimed  more  often  the  authority  to  define 
what  men  must  believe  and  what  they 
should  think  rather  than  authority  over  un- 
clean spirits.  It  is  easier  to  assume  mastery 
over  thought  and  faith  than  over  wrong. 
There  would  have  been  less  conflict,  I  think, 
and  more  peace  and  progress  if  authority 
had  been  steadily  directed  against  evil ;  if 
all  leaders  of  the  church  had  from  the  first 
lived  up  to  their  heritage,  not  as  lords  over 
all  opinion,  but  as  lords  over  all  wrong.  It 
would  be  worth  while  to  have  spent  these 
hours  together  if  we  should  learn  here  to 
drop  the  authority  which  we  have  assumed 
and  take  the  authority  to  which  we  are  en- 
titled. I  am  minded  to  propose  to  add  to 
the  forms  used  in  our  ordination  service  a 


2l8        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

new  phrase  :  **  In  our  Master's  name,  take 
thou  authority  over  demons,  to  cast  them 
out  of  men  and  society."  If  you  are  seeking 
to  be  masterful  men  here  is  the  chance.  You 
may  tyrannize  over  all  the  demons  you  can 
find.  The  authority  of  Christ  as  Redeemer 
from  sin  is  absolute. 

Perhaps  this  is  enough  for  this  phase  of 
the  subject.  We  must  now  find  if  we  can, 
in  a  little  more  detail,  the  program  of  those 
who  are  sent  forth.  And  this  we  can  do 
only  by  a  careful  study  of  our  first  documents 
in  the  light  of  modern  conditions  and  life. 
I  have  not  made  myself  at  all  clear  if  I 
have  not  made  perfectly  manifest  my  con- 
viction that  the  program  is  not  a  simple, 
but  a  complex  one,  with  many  essential 
elements.     These  in  part  we  now  consider. 

Bruce's  account  of  what  the  first  dis- 
ciples were  to  do  embraces  the  following 
items :  They  were  to  preach,  to  rid  the 
world  of  evil,  to  give  a  faithful  account  of 
Christ's  words  and  deeds,  to  present  a  true 
and  just  image  of  His  character,  to  offer  a 
true  reflection  of  His  spirit,  to  make  disciples 


WITH  A   PROGRAM  219 

of  all  Others  and  to  found  a  kingdom.  That 
is  not  a  simple  schedule.  It  is  elaborate  and 
complex.  It  would  not  be  accepted  at  all  by- 
some  quite  worthy  people.  On  the  one 
hand  are  those  who  declare  that  all  we  have 
to  do  is  to  bear  testimony,  that  we  have 
nothing  to  do  either  with  results  or  social 
conditions.  On  the  other  hand  are  those 
who  regard  bearing  testimony  as  a  very  use- 
less thing.  They  lay  emphasis  upon  chang- 
ing conditions.  Somewhere  between  these 
two  extremes  and  including  the  truth  in  each 
most  of  us  stand.  Nevertheless  for  all  of  us 
the  elective  principle  has  undue  weight.  My 
conviction  is  that  the  majority  of  the  grad- 
uates from  the  School  of  Christ  must  be 
general  practitioners  rather  than  specialists. 
Such  men  are  sorely  needed  and  very  em- 
phatically demanded.  Munger  in  speaking 
of  the  Church  says :  '*  The  Church  is  in  its 
analytic  stage  of  development  and  awaits 
its  synthetic  period  when  its  various  elements 
of  truth  and  power  shall  be  brought  into 
harmonious  relations.  It  is  now  insisting  on 
a  few  things,  antagonizing  or  ignoring  many. 


220   SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

But  such  is  not  the  true  Church.  It  is  a 
choir  of  chanting  worshippers,  it  is  a  hospital, 
a  school,  a  charity  house,  a  company  of 
preachers,  of  missionaries,  of  students  ;  it  is 
a  university  in  which  all  God's  works  and 
ways  and  all  human  institutions  are  massed 
for  universal  ends." 

The  simple  life  is  the  centre  of  current 
Christian  talk,  but  the  true  simple  life  for  us 
is  not  made  by  a  process  of  elimination,  but 
by  a  process  of  harmonizing  and  balancing 
of  complex  elements  of  life  and  power. 

Now  in  order  to  make  clear  to  ourselves 
the  scope  of  our  task  we  must  use  three  very 
old  and  familiar  words.  Christianity  has  to 
do  with  the  individual,  with  society,  with  the 
world.  That  is  entirely  commonplace  and 
unsensational.  But  a  sensation  after  twenty 
centuries  is  rather  hard  to  find.  Here  again 
we  run  across  that  vicious  elective  principle. 
One  man  becomes  an  evangelist,  caring 
nothing  for  either  social  righteousness  or 
missionary  activity.  Another  becomes  a 
social  reformer,  caring  nothing  for  personal 
redemption   or   world-wide   conquest.      An- 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  221 

Other  throws  his  whole  weight  on  missions, 
rejoicing  far  more  over  one  Hindoo  converted 
than  over  any  revival  in  his  own  town,  and 
aflame  with  interest  in  India's  social  unrest 
and  social  wrong  while  he  cares  nothing 
about  and  does  nothing  to  cure  the  social 
and  organized  evils  of  his  own  city.  And 
one  thing  is  set  over  against  another,  choice 
being  made  between  them.  One  method  is 
chosen  or  exalted  in  a  most  futile  way.  Thus 
it  will  be  said :  *'  Redeem  men  and  you  will 
easily  get  a  redeemed  society."  And  all 
social  redemption  halts  until  we  can  get  all 
men  redeemed.  Another  cries  out :  **  Re- 
deem conditions  so  that  individual  redemp- 
tion shall  have  a  fair  chance.  Let  us  suspend 
all  revivals  until  we  clean  out  all  saloons 
and  all  brothels.  Let  us  not  attempt  the 
conversion  of  a  working  man  until  we  have 
secured  for  him  better  housing  and  better 
wages."  And  all  this  halts  the  kingdom. 
Men  have  been  slow  to  see  that  the  program 
of  Christianity  is  complete  and  balanced  and 
all  parts  of  it  must  be  going  forward  all  the 
time.     We  cannot  be  doing  just  part  of  the 


222         SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

work  of  Christ  any  more  than  we  can  be 
preaching  just  part  of  the  truth  of  Christ.  If 
we  do  we  shall  only  be  touching  part  of  the 
life  to  which  Christ  sends  us.  Let  us  have 
done  with  partial  measures  and  partial  mes- 
sages, with  doing  part  of  the  work  of  Christ 
and  using  part  of  His  truth.  We  are  to 
touch  all  life,  and  that  requires  all  truth  and 
all  effort. 

The  graduates  of  the  School  of  Christ 
have  not  gone  very  far  towards  completing 
their  task.  We  have  not  redeemed  all  the 
individuals  in  any  community.  We  have 
not  wrought  a  complete  work  upon  many 
individuals,  even  among  those  in  process  of 
perfect  redemption.  We  have  not  brought 
very  near  the  fact  of  human  brotherhood. 
We  have  not  yet  brought  about  the  kingdom 
of  God  anywhere,  and  in  most  of  the  earth 
we  have  hardly  begun.  And,  indeed,  I 
think  we  need  to  define  again  for  our  gen- 
eration just  what  we  propose  to  do.  Certain 
it  is  that  some  very  familiar  terms  have  be- 
come very  vague  and  unclear  terms.  Our 
use  of  these  terms  is  often  a  substitute  for 


WITH  A  PROGRAM  223 

our  clear  understanding  of  them.  Take  the 
matter  of  the  individual,  for  example.  What 
do  we  propose  to  do  for  him?  Get  him 
saved,  of  course.  What  does  that  mean? 
Get  him  converted,  of  course.  But  that  only- 
states  an  early  stage  of  the  process.  That 
step  is  so  important  and  often  so  dramatic 
that  it  blinds  many  to  the  full  scheme  for  a 
converted  man.  A  religion  out  of  which 
conversion  had  gone  would  be  no  true  and 
effective  religion  at  all.  A  religion  which 
continually  lives  in  and  lives  on  a  perpetual 
harking  back  to  and  repetition  of  that 
elemental  experience  becomes  wearisome 
and  dwarfing  at  last.  Conversion  is  so  good 
and  vital  a  thing  that  it  is  a  shame  to  have 
it  spoiled.  Part  of  the  unhappy  backsliding 
of  our  history  is  due  to  men's  weariness  of 
that  first  initial  experience  as  though  it  were 
final.  '*  Men  really  get  tired  being  born 
again  so  often." 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  redefining  of  the 
Christian  life  in  its  personal  aspects  and 
characteristics  is  a  living  demand.  Such 
definition  should  not  be  made  in  the  terms 


224        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

of  a  scholastic  theology  ;  not  so  much  in  the 
terms  of  medieval  metaphysics  as  in  the 
terms  of  personal  life  and  experience.  What 
does  Jesus  Christ  propose  to  do  for  and  in  and 
with  a  man — a  man  now  living  ?  What  is  the 
scope  of  personal  change,  personal  improve- 
ment, personal  growth  towards  perfection  of 
life  and  character ;  the  ideal  of  religious  ex- 
perience and  religious  education ;  the  pro- 
gram as  it  affects  the  man  himself  and  his 
relations?  And  what  are  the  forces,  the 
agencies,  the  methods  through  which  God's 
redemption  and  education  of  a  man  shall  be 
carried  forward  ?  This  is  not  a  medieval 
nor  a  scholastic  matter.  The  world's  work 
waits  on  Christian  character. 

Says  Peabody :  *'  The  teaching  of  Jesus, 
even  when  its  form  is  social,  is  fundamentally 
personal.  Out  from  behind  the  Social  Ques- 
tion emerges  the  antecedent  problem  of  the 
Christian  character.  It  is  for  others  to  plough 
and  harrow  the  field  of  the  world,  to  arrange 
its  schemes  of  work  and  wages,  of  politics  and 
reform  ;  the  mission  of  Jesus  is  to  create  a 
type  of  character  which  shall  be  sown  like 


WITH  A   PROGRAM  225 

good  seed  in  the  waiting  field  and  possess  it 
as  children  of  the  kingdom.  The  more  com- 
manding the  Social  Question  grows,  the  more 
essential  becomes  this  demand  for  people  fit 
to  meet  that  question.  The  more  intricate  is 
the  machinery  of  the  world,  the  more  compe- 
tent must  be  its  engineers.  At  every  point 
the  Social  Question  drives  one  back  to  the 
antecedent  question  of  character ;  from  the 
acquisition  of  goods  to  the  need  of  goodness  ; 
from  the  problem  of  cheapening  the  product 
of  labour  to  the  problem  of  raising  the  stand- 
ard of  men ;  from  things  to  life ;  from  the 
thought  of  the  world  as  a  factory  to  the 
thought  of  the  world  as  a  field,  where  the 
good  seed  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom. 
The  problem  of  other  centuries  was  that  of 
saving  people  from  the  world  ;  the  problem 
of  the  present  century  is  that  of  making  peo- 
ple fit  to  save  the  world  "  {Jesus  Christ  and 
Christia7i  Character^  p.  17). 

In  this  whole  matter  of  Christian  life  terms 
have  become  rather  set.  It  is  easier  to  re- 
tain an  old  phrase  however  shop-worn  than 
to  adopt  and  adapt  a  new  one.     And  many 


226        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

have  lost  interest  in  the  easy  and  conven- 
tional phraseology  which  does  not  seem  to 
them  to  bear  a  close  relation  to  the  facts  of 
life  itself. 

One  of  the  pressing  tasks  of  the  new  age 
is  the  better  definition  of  the  Christian  life, 
the  recognition  of  immense  temperamental 
and  other  differences  among  adults,  and  a 
recognition  of  the  vital  difference  between 
adult  life  and  child  life.  Divine  grace,  divine 
help  and  divine  operation  on  life  are  essential 
at  every  stage  of  life,  but  the  necessity  is  not 
the  same  at  every  stage.  There  are  diversi- 
ties of  operations.  Many  men  are  only  par- 
tially effective  in  influencing  all  types  of  life 
because  they  use  so  few  types  of  truth  and 
religious  appeal.  In  some  churches  we  have 
only  had  one  door  open  into  the  kingdom 
and  one  room  in  the  kingdom  for  all  sorts. 
At  the  point  of  religious  life,  what  Jesus 
Christ  proposes  to  do  for  an  individual,  old 
or  young,  old  and  young ;  good  and  bad^ 
partially  good  and  partially  bad,  at  this  point 
lies  our  imperial  appeal.  At  this  point  also 
lies    our   tragic   failure.     The   ancient  Jews 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  227 

were  more  concerned  about  saving  insti- 
tutions than  about  saving  life.  Jesus'  con- 
cern was  and  is  for  life.  Wine-skins,  institu- 
tions, phrases  are  all  for  the  wine  of  life  and 
life  itself.  The  life  of  many  a  church  would 
be  saved  as  the  ministry  of  many  a  man 
would  be  saved  by  a  clear  answer  to  the 
question  :  What  does  Jesus  expect  us  to  do 
for  an  individual  ?  This  will  define  the  work 
of  Christ  for  the  person  and  will  define  the 
program  for  those  who  have  been  in  His 
school.  The  answer  will  not  set  aside  those 
gracious,  divine,  essential  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  without  which  there  is  no  Chris- 
tian life,  nor  will  it  tie  those  influences  to 
phrases  from  which  meaning  has  gone,  or 
phrases  which  never  had  any  meaning  for 
the  men  ^now  living.  We  are  men  savers, 
not  phrase  savers. 

The  answer  will  set  in  its  right  place  all 
that  ancient  wisdom  known  as  nurture  and 
admonition,  and  all  that  modern  movement 
known  as  religious  education. 

How  important  this  is  in  both  its  per- 
sonal and  social  aspects  few  understand.     If 


228        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

we  did  estimate  it  at  its  full  value  surely  the 
churches  would  not  be  so  lame  and  so  inef- 
fective ;  families  would  not  be  so  weak  in 
their  religious  care  of  child  life.  Did  the 
Master  mean  to  teach  us  that  the  recovery  of 
one  lost  was  more  important  than  keeping 
ninety-nine  in  safety?  The  joy  of  the  angels 
over  one  recovered  is  a  perfectly  natural  joy, 
but  not  because  one  is  worth  more  than  the 
rest  of  the  hundred,  who  have  been  clean  and 
decent.  The  good  shepherd  will  leave  the 
bulk  of  his  flock  while  he  scours  the  moun- 
tainside to  find  one  stray  sheep,  but  he  will 
not  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  to  themselves, 
to  wander  and  get  lost  while  he  is  gone  on 
his  noble  errand.  He  will  leave  them  in 
safety  and  under  care  and  protection.  The 
woman  will  hunt  as  she  ought  the  coin  lost 
from  her  bracelet.  Its  absence  destroys  the 
perfection  of  the  bracelet.  But  she  will  not 
throw  the  bracelet  away  or  leave  it  on  the 
sidewalk  to  be  stolen  while  she  is  hunting 
that  one  lost  piece. 

Now  religious  education  is  not  a  substitute 
for  religious   revival.     One   good    thing   is 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  229 

never  a  substitute  for  another  good  thing. 
But  the  religious  education  of  the  individual 
beginning  in  youth  and  lasting  forever  is  an 
essential  part  of  our  necessary  program.  It 
was  not  to  childhood  but  to  manhood  that 
the  Master  said,  *'  Ye  must  be  born  again." 
That  it  must  become  like  childhood  was 
what  He  told  wrong  manhood. 

Here  many  men  who  have  been  in  the 
School  of  Christ  fail.  They  look  down  upon 
the  teaching  of  children.  In  many  places 
our  whole  educational  system  is  upside  down 
in  this  respect.  Elementary  subjects  are 
simple,  therefore  teachers  of  elementary  sub- 
jects can  be  carelessly  chosen,  inadequately 
prepared  and  poorly  paid.  We  reserve  our 
ablest  teachers  and  our  largest  salaries  for 
advanced  subjects  and  graduate  students. 
But  we  are  not  teachers  of  subjects,  elemen- 
tary or  advanced.  We  are  teachers  of  per- 
sons. And  the  kingdom  of  heaven  has  a 
little  child  for  its  type.  The  pastor  or  the 
teacher  who  can  set  the  feet  of  childhood  in 
the  way  of  life  is  doing  the  largest  work  in 
the  world  to-day.     Arnold  so  taught  Eng- 


230        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

land's  little  boys  that  he  gave  to  England  a 
generation  of  mighty  men.  Do  not  worry 
lest  your  great  abilities  should  be  wasted  on 
children.  Only  be  afraid  that  your  stupidity 
will  prevent  you  from  doing  a  mighty  work 
among  them. 

The  social  phases  of  religious  education 
will  demand  attention.  The  Religious  Edu- 
cation Association  arose  in  response  to  a 
mighty  need.  Its  threefold  purpose  is  stated 
in  these  three  sentences : 

To  inspire  the  educational  forces  of 
our  country  with  the  religious  ideal. 

To  inspire  the  religious  forces  of  our 
country  with  the  educational  ideal. 

To  keep  before  the  public  mind  the 
ideal  of  Religious  Education,  and  the 
sense  of  its  need  and  value. 

These  are  among  the  unsolved  problems. 
Shall  I  add  now  that  in  my  judgment  there 
never  was  such  manifest  need  of  the  work  of 
the  Religious  Education  Association  as  there 
is  to-day?  The  perfectly  startling  disclo- 
sures made  in  many  realms  indicate  that 
America  must  be  saved  at  the  point  of  char- 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  23 1 

acter.  The  Dean  of  the  New  York  Uni- 
versity School  of  Commerce  declared  before 
a  Cooper  Union  audience  that  *'  The  trouble 
is  not  that  there  is  a  low  standard  of  honour 
and  morality  in  business,  but  that  there  is  no 
standard  at  all.  Well-meaning  men,"  he 
added,  "often  are  at  a  loss  to  determine 
whether  a  certain  profitable  policy  is  honour- 
able or  dishonourable.  There  is  no  unanim- 
ity of  opinion  with  regard  to  the  Tightness 
or  wrongness  of  many  of  the  most  common 
commercial  transactions."  In  the  most  no- 
table volume  on  Sociology  published  in  re- 
cent years  precisely  this  same  general  decla- 
ration is  made  that  there  is  no  uniform 
standard  of  morality.  The  President  of  Cor- 
nell University  has  publicly  declared  that 
ours  is  a  generation  that  has  no  fear  of  God 
before  its  eyes,  that  the  age  is  money  mad, 
that  Americans  are  rapidly  reverting  to  the 
worship  of  mammon  and  that  God  is  for- 
gotten for  gold.  These  may  be  thought  to 
be  the  overheated  utterances  of  men  who  are 
excited,  but  they  indicate  a  wide-spread  feel- 
ing based  upon  very  wide-spread  conditions. 


232        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

I  must  emphasize,  however,  two  more  fea- 
tures of  our  essential  program.  Recall  again 
the  list  of  things  we  are  to  do :  **  to  give  a 
faithful  account  of  Christ's  words  and  teach- 
ings ;  to  present  a  just  and  true  image  of 
His  character,  and  to  offer  a  true  reflection 
of  His  spirit ;  to  rid  the  world  of  evil,  to 
disciple  the  nations,  to  build  a  kingdom." 
Our  work  is  to  be  preachers,  reformers,  in- 
terpreters, saints,  mystics,  missionaries,  and 
social  redeemers.  The  list  is  rather  appal- 
ling but  very  commanding.  This  looks  like 
a  man's  task.  To  rid  the  world  of  evil,  per- 
sonal and  organized,  is  not  business  for  a 
holiday.  We  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and 
blood.  The  ten  commandments  are  directed 
against  idolatry,  adultery,  murder,  lying, 
stealing,  covetousness.  Sabbath  breaking, 
profanity  and  false  witnessing. 

The  fruits  of  the  flesh  are :  '*  fornication, 
uncleanness,  lasciviousness,  idolatry,  sorcery, 
enmities,  strife,  jealousies,  wraths,  factions, 
divisions,  parties,  envyings,  drunkenness, 
revellings,  and  such  like."  The  list  might 
be  expanded.     We  do  not  need,  however,  to 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  233 

resort  to  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament  in 
order  to  find  such  a  list.  Sin  is  not  proved 
by  reference  to  the  Book.  Evil  is  in  evi- 
dence elsewhere  than  in  the  printed  descrip- 
tions of  it.  **  Christianity,"  says  Clark,  "  is 
not  a  book  religion,  but  a  life  religion." 
Even  so  our  task  is  not  the  banishment  of 
evil  from  a  book,  but  from  life. 

It  is  utterly  unnecessary  to  elaborate  and 
describe  the  forms  of  evil  all  about  us.  The 
forms  are  not  the  same  in  all  places,  the  pro- 
portions difler  very  much  in  different  places, 
but  the  thing  is  everywhere.  Some  men  are 
so  impressed  with  the  presence  of  evil  that 
they  are  in  a  constant  conflict  with  it.  They 
are  the  men  called  good  fighters.  All  their 
sermons  are  sermons  against  evil.  They 
abound  in  the  language  of  denunciation. 
Such  men  acquire  finally  a  rich  and  exten- 
sive vocabulary  of  denunciatory  terms.  They 
are  always  in  danger  of  developing  a  one- 
sided ministry.  Only  in  part  is  the  minister 
a  reformer,  or  rather  the  man  who  is  exclu- 
sively a  reformer  is  not  completely  a  minister. 
Reformer,   however,   the   minister   must   be. 


234        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

Ministry  is  an  inclusive  term.  Now  take  a 
case,  a  case  with  which  I  am  famihar.  Here 
is  a  small  town  of  a  couple  thousand  in- 
habitants. Into  it  comes  a  preacher  who 
has  been  for  some  years  in  a  city.  He 
has  the  city's  evils  in  his  mind.  He  pro- 
ceeds to  denounce  the  city's  sins  to  the  peo- 
ple of  that  village,  adding  a  few  sins  in  order 
to  show  how  brave  he  is.  Meantime  the  sins 
of  that  village  are  enough  to  occupy  him. 
What  are  they?  The  outstanding  public 
evils  are  the  saloons  and  drunkenness.  Pro- 
fanity and  foul  speech  characterize  the  talk 
of  the  men ;  slander  and  petty  gossip  the 
conversation  of  the  women.  There  is  plenty 
of  covetousness,  no  higher  criticism ;  plenty 
of  lying  and  small  cheating,  no  evolution. 
It  is  a  bad  Saturday  that  sees  no  fights  on 
the  streets.  Readers  of  the  life  of  James 
McCosh  will  recall  his  account  of  his  native 
village  and  the  evils  that  cursed  it.  It  is  a 
picture  many  of  us  are  familiar  with.  Into 
that  town  came  one  day  another  preacher. 
He  studied  the  town  carefully  for  weeks,  until 
he  knew  it.     Then  he  set  to  work  to  get  rid  of 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  235 

its  evils.  This  was  his  plan  :  His  richest  man 
was  stingy  and  covetous.  Other  preachers 
had  bravely  denounced  those  sins  in  the  ab- 
stract and  the  distance  and  then  patted  on 
the  back  the  most  conspicuous  local  instance 
of  both.  This  will  not  do.  This  man  must 
be  made  generous  and  philanthropic.  His 
evil  must  be  got  rid  of  and  his  life  saved. 
The  saloons  had  always  been  in  the  town, 
and  the  town  had  a  bad  reputation.  Every 
preacher  who  came  told  the  town  so  within 
his  first  week,  usually  making  the  town  angry 
by  so  doing.  These  saloons  must  be  got  rid 
of.  This  wise  preacher  carefully  began  his 
work.  Quietly  he  appealed  to  the  father- 
hood and  motherhood  and  the  pride  of  the 
town.  He  did  not  alienate  the  ruling  party. 
He  used  it  and  its  best  men,  and  one  fair 
day  the  saloons  went  out.  Then  straightway 
this  wise  preacher  began  to  talk  about  gym- 
nasiums, libraries,  recreation  parks  and  the 
rest.  His  covetous  man  became  interested 
and  forgot  to  be  stingy.  But  the  point  I  am 
trying  to  make  is  that  the  evil  that  was  in 
that  town  was  the  evil  that  preacher  sought 


236        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

to  rid  that  town  of.  And  he  did  not  alienate 
the  men  who  could  help  him  rid  the  town  of 
the  evil.  He  was  not  so  anxious  to  show  his 
bravery  as  he  was  to  get  the  saloons  out  and 
the  libraries  and  other  things  in. 

But  now  the  problem  in  Chicago  and 
similar  cities  is  not  so  simple.  It  is  the 
same,  of  course,  but  the  same  with  a  dif- 
ference. It  is  easy  to  grow  pessimistic  over 
it,  but  pessimism  does  not  help  any  more 
than  optimism  does.  On  any  theory  there 
is  plenty  of  evil.  But  a  church  in  a  city  is 
not  a  series  of  detached,  unrelated  preaching 
places.  The  church  must  look  at  the  city  as 
a  whole  and  must  do  in  the  city  everything 
that  needs  to  be  done  and  by  every  wise 
method.  One  of  the  fundamental  laws  of 
the  kingdom  is  the  law  of  adaptation.  The 
Church  has  not  always  applied  this  law. 
Country  churches,  family  churches  have 
been  planted  and  kept  going  in  localities 
where  they  were  almost  helpless.  They 
have  not  been  effective  for  the  destruction 
of  evil  at  all.  The  church  in  a  city  needs  a 
view  of  the  city  as  a  whole,  needs  to  apply 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  237 

the  law  of  adaptation,  and  needs  to  consider 
its  work  in  its  totality.  Then  one  church 
will  not  vex  another  while  evil  beats  them 
both.  I  doubt  whether  the  church  in  any- 
city  has  this  keen  sense  of  its  organic  unity 
as  it  ought  to  have  it.  Some  years  ago  the 
Methodists  of  London  did  appoint  a  large 
and  representative  commission  to  study  the 
city  of  London  with  a  view  to  making  for 
the  Methodism  of  that  city  a  program.  That 
commission  has  made  a  partial  report  and 
the  church  has  begun  to  work  in  a  scientific 
way  at  its  problem.  Such  a  commission 
ought  to  be  appointed  for  every  large  city. 
It  is,  however,  the  design  of  the  church  to 
utilize  the  city  missionary  society  in  each 
city  as  just  such  a  central  agency  for  the 
carrying  on  of  its  work.  The  city  as  a 
whole,  the  church  working  as  one  force, 
doing  in  each  place  what  needs  to  be 
done  there — that  is  the  ideal.  You  re- 
member Mr.  Kipling's  two  words  on  this 
subject : 

"  The  strength  of  the  pack  is  the  wolf, 
The  strength  of  the  wolf  is  the  pack." 


238        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

The  strength  of  the  body  is  the  member,  the 
strength  of  the  state  is  the  citizen,  the 
strength  of  the  organization  is  the  individual, 
the  strength  of  the  Church  at  large  is  the 
local  church.  All  that  is  true.  You  cannot 
make  a  strong  organization  out  of  weaklings 
and  nobodies.  But  on  the  other  hand  the 
individual  is  enforced  and  multiplied  by  the 
group.  The  strong  local  church  in  its  cam- 
paign against  evil  is  strengthened  by  the 
general  church.  I  think  we  mightily  need  a 
revival  of  the  organic  sense  in  our  fight 
against  the  evil  in  the  cities  where  evil  is  so 
powerfully  organized.  We  cannot  success- 
fully move  against  it  except  in  our  united  and 
organized  capacity. 

Perhaps  this  is  as  good  a  place  as  any  to 
mention  another  recent  movement  within  the 
Wesleyan  Church  in  England.  I  refer  to  the 
society  organized  by  our  Wesleyan  brethren : 
The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Sociological  So- 
ciety. It  has  the  following  features:  (i)  It 
is  concerned  with  the  actual  facts  of  existing 
social  life  ;  (2)  these  are  to  be  studied  from 
the  Christian  point  of  view ;  (3)  membership 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  239 

does  not  commit  any  one  to  the  support  of 
any  political  party  or  social  theory ;  (4)  it  is 
entirely  a  private  association,  having  no 
official  connection  with  the  church  whose 
name  it  bears. 

The  program  deals  with  practical,  not 
theoretical  questions.  These  are  amongst 
the  questions  of  the  day.  Housing  and 
sanitation,  the  three  allied  evils  of  intemper- 
ance, impurity,  and  gambling,  commercial 
morality,  labour  questions,  including  wages, 
rents,  and  old  age  pensions,  education  in  all 
its  parts  and  bearings,  crime  and  criminals — 
such  an  enumeration  brings  before  the  mind 
no  abstract  questions  at  all,  but  matters 
deeply  affecting  the  very  fabric  of  society  as 
well  as  the  character  and  destiny  of  multitudes 
of  individual  lives. 

Professor  Davison  writing  concerning  this 
new  society  says :  "  Here  we  touch  the  very 
pillars  upon  which  modern  civilization  rests. 
Next  to  the  Christian  principles  themselves 
what  can  be  more  important  than  the  best 
mode  of  their  application  and  the  removal  of 
all  that  hinders  their  application  to  the  teem- 


240        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

ing,  throbbing  life  of  society  around  us? 
Some  of  the  problems  involved  belong  to  the 
magistrate,  some  to  the  statesman,  some  to 
the  political  economist.  But  others  very 
nearly  concern  ministers  of  religion  and  ac- 
tive members  of  churches  who  cannot  step 
many  yards  from  their  own  doors  to  help  and 
improve  their  neighbours  without  finding 
themselves  face  to  face  with  evils  which  can 
never  be  cured  solely  by  individual  effort. 
What  can  be  more  valuable — painful  as  the 
process  often  is — than  an  examination  into 
the  causes  of  these  evils,  the  extent  to  which 
legislation  affects  them  and  the  promotion  of 
organized  efforts  for  their  amelioration.  One 
of  the  chief  needs  of  our  time  is  an  increase 
of  wholesome  knowledge  on  all  matters  af- 
fecting the  welfare  of  civilization,  since  many 
forms  of  evil  are  due  not  to  malevolence,  but 
to  sheer  ignorance  and  blundering.  This 
society  will  set  itself  to  the  important  work 
of  collecting  information,  widening  ideas,  re- 
moving prejudices  and  gathering  from  out 
the  social  pathway  the  obstacles  which 
hinder  the  progress  of  the  chariot  of  the  Lord 


WITH  A   PROGRAM  241 

The  members  will  be  something  better  than 
students  of  a  quasi  science,  they  will  be  the 
benefactors  of  their  generation  and  auxiliaries 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  earth.'* 

We  have  made  a  fine  beginning  in  Amer- 
ica. The  things  already  done  and  the  larger 
things  proposed  by  the  Federal  Council  of 
the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  constitute 
a  new  and  noble  chapter  in  the  new  acts  of 
the  apostles.  It  looks  at  last  as  if  the  Church 
was  about  to  approach  the  whole  social  ques- 
tion through  the  door  of  morals  and  religion, 
and  approach  it  with  something  of  union  and 
strength.  Hear  this  from  a  commission  rep- 
resenting more  than  seventeen  million  church- 
members  : 

**  This  commission  recommends  to  the  of- 
ficial bodies  of  Christian  churches,  in  order  to 
standardize,  as  it  were,  the  simplest  Christian 
obligations  in  the  industrial  field,  to  adopt 
resolutions  calling  upon  employers  of  labour 
within  those  churches  to  conform,  in  their  in- 
dustrial operations,  to  these  three  simple 
rules : 

"  One  day's  rest  in  each  seven/' 


242        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

**  Reasonable  hours  of  labour." 

"  A  living  wage  based  on  these  reasonable 
hours  of  labour." 

In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  there 
has  been  organized  what  is  known  as  the 
Methodist  Federation  for  Social  Service  in 
response  to  what  seems  the  responsibility  of 
the  Church  to  meet  the  social  problems  of  the 
day  with  a  Christian  answer.  This  move- 
ment does  not  depart  from  Methodism  but 
allies  itself  with  the  very  genesis  and  history 
of  the  Church  itself.  One  of  the  statements 
issued  by  the  body  points  out  how  ''the 
Methodist  movement  in  England  began  with 
the  same  social  spirit.  Work  at  Oxford 
among  the  sick,  the  poor,  and  the  impris- 
oned led  naturally  to  the  later  labours  of 
John  Wesley  for  freedom,  for  temperance, 
for  education,  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute 
and  the  afflicted.  He  encouraged  cleanli- 
ness, thrift,  and  saving ;  he  established  loan 
funds  and  free  dispensaries,  homes  for  the 
aged,  and  employment  bureaus.  He  met 
the  needs  of  the  unemployed  by  opening 
factories.     He  organized  friendly  visiting  in 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  243 

London.  In  his  view  works  of  relief  and  of 
reform  went  side  by  side  with  works  of  devo- 
tion ;  evangelism  meant  winning  men  from 
lives  of  selfishness  to  become  labourers  with 
Jesus  Christ  in  that  social  organization — the 
kingdom  of  God." 

The  objects  of  the  Federation  are  :  **To 
deepen  within  the  Church  the  sense  of  social 
obligation  and  opportunity,  to  study  social 
problems  from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  to 
promote  social  service  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

The  General  Conference  of  1908  was  so 
impressed  by  the  spirit  and  intention  of  this 
Federation  as  to  give  the  movement  a  semi- 
official status  and  to  make  the  following  re- 
quest of  the  new  body  : 

**  We  request  the  Federation  to  give  the 
fullest  possible  consideration  to  the  following 
questions,  and  to  present  their  findings 
thereon  as  a  memorial  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  191 2  for  such  action  as  that  body 
may  deem  wise : 

"(i)  What  principles  and  measures  of 
social  reform  are  so  evidently  righteous  and 


244        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

Christian  as  to  demand  the  specific  approval 
and  support  of  the  church  ? 

*'  (2)  How  can  the  agencies  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  be  wisely  used  or 
altered  with  a  view  to  promoting  the  princi- 
ples and  measures  thus  approved  ? 

*'  (3)  How  may  we  best  cooperate  in  this 
behalf  with  other  Christian  denominations? 

**  (4)  How  can  our  courses  of  ministerial 
study  in  seminaries  and  conferences  be  modi- 
fied with  a  view  to  the  better  preparation  of 
our  preachers  for  efficiency  in  social  re- 
form?" 

And  that  General  Conference  announced 
the  Social  Creed  of  Methodism  in  the  follow- 
ing w^ords : 

"  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  stands : 

**  For  equal  rights  and  complete  justice  for 
all  men  in  all  stations  of  life. 

"  For  the  principle  of  conciliation  and  arbi- 
tration in  industrial  discussions. 

"  For  the  protection  of  the  worker  from 
dangerous  machinery,  occupational  disease, 
injuries  and  mortality. 

"  For  the  abolition  of  child  labour. 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  245 

**  For  such  regulation  of  the  conditions  of 
labour  for  women  as  shall  safeguard  the 
physical  and  moral  health  of  the  community. 

**  For  the  suppression  of  the  *  sweating 
system.' 

**  For  the  gradual  and  reasonable  reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labour  to  the  lowest  practical 
point,  with  work  for  all ;  and  for  that  degree 
of  leisure  for  all  which  is  the  condition  of  the 
highest  human  life. 

**  For  a  release  from  employment  one  day 
in  seven. 

"  For  a  living  wage  in  every  industry. 

**  For  the  highest  wage  that  each  industry 
can  afford,  and  for  the  most  equitable  divi- 
sion of  the  products  of  industry  that  can  ulti- 
mately be  devised. 

"  For  the  recognition  of  the  Golden  Rule, 
and  the  mind  of  Christ  as  the  supreme  law  of 
society  and  the  sure  remedy  for  all  social 
ills." 

Those  are  economic  questions  on  their 
face,  but  they  are  religious  and  moral  in 
their  fibre.  Of  course  the  minute  we  begin 
to  urge  even  so  mild  a  program  as  that  we 


246        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE  MASTER 

shall  be  told  to  **  preach  the  Gospel."  Men 
become  intensely  solicitous  for  the  Gospel 
whenever  preaching  touches  their  practices 
uncomfortably.  But  our  salvation  from  a 
false  individualism  on  one  hand  and  a  fatal 
socialism  on  the  other  lies  just  in  this  gospel 
of  a  good  man  and  a  good  society.  Sin  has 
become  much  more  a  social  thing  than  it  was 
in  the  earlier  ages.  Says  a  careful  student  of 
conditions,  **  Modern  sin  takes  its  character 
from  the  mutualism  of  our  time."  "  Boodling 
is  the  new  treason,  blackmail  the  new  piracy, 
embezzlement  the  new  theft,  tax  dodging  the 
new  larceny,  child  labour  the  new  slavery, 
adulteration  of  food  the  new  murder.  The 
fraudulent  promoter  *  devours  widows'  houses,' 
the  monopolist  *  grinds  the  faces  of  the  poor,' 
mercenary  editors  and  spellbinders  *  put  bitter 
for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter.'  The  cloven 
hoof  hides  in  patent  leather ;  and  to-day,  as 
in  Hosea's  time,  the  people  'are  destroyed 
for  lack  of  knowledge.'  The  mob  lynches 
the  red-handed  slayer,  when  it  ought  to  keep 
a  gallows  Haman-high  for  the  venal  mine 
inspector,   the   seller   of    infected    milk,   the 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  247 

maintainer  of  a  fire-trap  theatre.  The  child- 
beater  is  forever  blasted  in  reputation,  but 
the  exploiter  of  infant  toil,  or  the  concoctor 
of  a  soothing  syrup  for  the  drugging  of 
babies,  stands  a  pillar  of  society.  The  petty 
shoplifter  is  more  abhorred  than  the  stealer 
of  a  franchise,  and  the  wife-whipper  is  out- 
casted  long  before  the  man  who  sends 
his  over-insured  ship  to  founder  with  its 
crew.     .     .     . 

"  In  England  till  1847  any  one  who  knew 
how  to  read  might  commit  murder  with  im- 
punity by  claiming  '  benefit  of  clergy.'  There 
is  something  like  this  in  the  way  we  have 
granted  quack  and  fakir  and  mine  operator 
and  railroad  company  indulgence  to  commit 
manslaughter  in  the  name  of  business. 

**  The  man  who  picks  pockets  with  a  rail- 
way rebate,  murders  with  an  adulterant  in- 
stead of  a  bludgeon,  burglarizes  with  a  *  rake- 
off'  instead  of  a  jimmy,  cheats  with  a  com- 
pany prospectus  instead  of  a  deck  of  cards,  or 
scuttles  his  town  instead  of  his  ship,  does  not 
feel  on  his  brow  the  brand  of  malefactor. 
The  shedder  of  blood,  the  oppressor  of  the 


248        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

widow  and  the  fatherless,  long  ago  became 
odious ;  but  latter-day  treacheries  fly  no  skull- 
and-crossbones  flag  at  the  masthead.     .     .    . 

''  How  decent  are  the  pale  slayings  of  the 
quack,  the  adulterator,  and  the  purveyor  of 
polluted  water,  compared  with  the  red  slay- 
ings of  the  vulgar  bandit  or  assassin !  Even 
if  there  is  blood-letting,  the  long-range,  ten- 
tacular nature  of  modern  homicide  eliminates 
all  personal  collision.  What  an  abyss  be- 
tween the  knife-play  of  brawlers  and  the  law- 
defying  neglect  to  fence  dangerous  machin- 
ery in  a  mill,  or  to  furnish  cars  with  safety 
couplers !     .     .     . 

''  The  blackguarding  editor  is  really  un- 
dermining the  freedom  of  the  press.  The 
policy  kings  and  saloon-keepers,  who  get 
out  to  the  polls  the  last  vote  of  the  vicious 
and  criminal  classes,  are  sapping  manhood 
suffrage.  Striking  engineers  who  spitefully 
desert  passenger  trains  in  mid-career  are 
jeopardizing  the  right  of  a  man  to  work  only 
when  he  pleases.  The  real  victim  of  a  lynch- 
ing mob  is  not  the  malefactor,  but  the  law- 
abiding  spirit.      School-board  grafters  who 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  249 

blackmail  applicants  for  a  teacher's  position 
are  stabbing  the  free  public  school.  The 
corrupt  bosses  and  *  combines '  are  murder- 
ing representative  government.  The  perpe- 
trators of  election  frauds  unwittingly  assail 
the  institution  of  the  ballot"  (Ross,  Sins  of 
Society). 

Now  the  preacher  or  church  which  has  no 
gospel  for  a  situation  like  that  has  no  gospel 
at  all.  Jesus  cannot  be  classified  either  as  a 
theologian,  an  ecclesiastic,  a  revivalist  or 
a  socialist,  but  if  there  is  any  wrong  of  any 
sort  anywhere  in  the  world  His  face  is 
against  it ;  if  there  is  any  injustice  His  wrath 
is  upon  it ;  if  there  is  any  oppression  of  the 
weak  by  the  strong  His  woe  is  upon  the  op- 
pressors. 

We  do  not  need  to  set  personal  evangel- 
ism over  against  social  redemption  nor 
choose  between  the  two.  No  man  has  fully 
learned  his  lesson  in  the  School  of  Christ  un- 
less he  has  that  passion  for  a  man  that  will 
send  him  like  the  good  shepherd  out  upon 
the  far  hills  in  the  stormy  night  for  the  one 
lost  sheep,  nor  unless  he  has  learned  to  say 


250        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

to  every  modern  Herod :  *'  It  is  not  lawful 
for  thee  to  have  her";  to  every  modern 
Pharaoh,  "Let  my  people  go";  to  every 
modern  Ahab,  "  Hast  thou  killed,  and  also 
taken  possession?"  to  every  modern  David, 
*•  Thou  art  the  man  "  ;  to  every  modern  tax- 
gatherer  and  officer,  "  Extort  no  more  than 
that  which  is  appointed,  and  live  on  your 
wages  "  ;  to  all  men,  **  This  is  my  command- 
ment that  ye  love  one  another." 

The  best  definition  of  Christian  ethics  ever 
made,  I  think,  is  this :  **  Christian  ethics  is 
the  science  of  living  well  with  one  another 
according  to  Christ."  It  is  the  science  of 
living — that  ties  it  up  with  conduct.  It  is 
the  science  of  living  well — that  raises  a 
standard  of  personal  excellence.  It  is  the 
science  of  living  well  with  one  another — that 
is  social.  And  all  this  according  to  Christ 
both  in  Himself  and  His  relations.  Men  are 
tired  of  religion  as  a  merely  personal  thing. 
God  is  not  the  Father  of  men  who  are  not 
brothers.  This  is  our  work :  to  reclaim  our 
brother  in  Christ  and  for  Him,  and  be  one 
family  in  Him.     It  makes  the  heart  beat  fast 


WITH  A  PROGRAM  251 

just  to  say  thrt.  This  is  enough  to  command 
again  the  strongest  men  alive.  This  makes  a 
future  for  Christianity.  To  rid  the  world  of 
evil !  To  establish  the  world  in  righteous- 
ness I  Close  up,  oh,  friends  of  the  living 
God  !  Here  is  a  campaign  worthy  of  the  best 
soldiers  the  Cross  ever  had.  We  are  not  the 
guardians  of  a  conventional  piety.  **  Ascetic 
Christianity  called  the  world  evil  and  left  it. 
Humanity  is  waiting  for  a  Christianity  which 
will  call  the  world  evil  and  change  it." 

**  He  sent  them  forth  with  authority  over 
unclean  spirits."  Evil  has  no  rights.  Wher- 
ever evil  holds  a  man  in  its  grip  or  a  com- 
munity in  its  power  it  is  for  those  sent  by 
Christ  to  cry  out  with  authority  :  "Come  out 
of  him."  In  this  we  should  have  neither 
fear  nor  weakness.  Here  is  the  place  for  re- 
ligious authority  in  full  exercise  and  sway. 
It  is  good  to  be  alive  and  to  be  in  a  Chris- 
tianity with  such  a  future.  The  best  days 
are  not  gone.  Contests  between  popes  and 
kings  seem  cheap  and  small  beside  this  finer 
battle  between  Christ  and  mammon,  between 
right  and  wrong.     Those  older  contests  were 


252        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

over  petty  states  and  petty  rights.  This  is 
over  human  life  and  human  society.  The 
new  creature,  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  are  the  outcome  and  royal  prize. 

In  the  most  valuable  book  on  the  social 
question  published  in  recent  years  is  this 
parable : 

'*  When  the  Nineteenth  Century  died,  its 
Spirit  descended  to  the  vaulted  chamber  of 
the  Past,  where  the  Spirits  of  the  dead 
Centuries  sit  on  granite  thrones  together. 
When  the  newcomer  entered,  all  turned 
towards  him  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century  spoke :  '  Tell  thy  tale, 
brother.  Give  us  word  of  the  human  kind 
we  left  to  thee.* 

'*  *  I  am  the  Spirit  of  the  Wonderful  Cen- 
tury. I  gave  man  the  mastery  over  nature. 
Discoveries  and  inventions,  which  lighted 
the  black  space  of  the  past  like  lonely  stars, 
have  clustered  in  a  Milky  Way  of  radiance 
under  my  rule.  One  man  does  by  the  touch 
of  his  hand  what  the  toil  of  a  thousand  slaves 
never  did.  Knowledge  has  unlocked  the 
mines  of  wealth,  and  the  hoarded  wealth  of 


WITH  A   PROGRAM  253 

to-day  creates  the  vaster  wealth  of  to- 
morrow. Man  has  escaped  the  slavery  of 
Necessity  and  is  free. 

"  *  I  freed  the  thoughts  of  men.  They  face 
the  facts  and  know.  Their  knowledge  is 
common  to  all.  The  deeds  of  the  East  at 
eve  are  known  in  the  West  at  morn.  They 
send  their  whispers  under  the  seas  and  across 
the  clouds. 

"  *  I  broke  the  chains  of  bigotry  and 
despotism.  I  made  men  free  and  equal. 
Every  man  feels  the  worth  of  his  manhood. 

**  *  I  have  touched  the  summit  of  history. 
I  did  for  mankind  what  none  of  you  did  be- 
fore. They  are  rich.  They  are  wise.  They 
are  free.* 

**  The  Spirits  of  the  dead  Centuries  sat 
silent,  with  troubled  eyes.  At  last  the  Spirit 
of  the  First  Century  spoke  for  all. 

"'We  all  spoke  proudly  when  we  came 
here  in  the  flush  of  our  deeds,  and  thou 
more  proudly  than  we  all.  But  as  we  sit 
and  think  of  what  was  before  us,  and  what 
has  come  after  us,  shame  and  guilt  bear 
down   our  pride.     Your  words  sound  as  if 


254        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

the  redemption  of  man  had  come  at  last. 
Has  it  come? 

"  *  You  have  made  men  rich.  Tell  us,  is 
none  in  pain  with  hunger  to-day  and  none 
in  fear  of  hunger  for  to-morrow?  Do  all 
children  grow  up  fair  of  limb  and  trained  for 
thought  and  action?  Do  none  die  before 
their  time  ?  Has  the  mastery  of  nature  made 
men  free  to  enjoy  their  hves  and  loves,  and 
to  live  the  higher  life  of  the  mind  ? 

"'You  have  made  men  wise.  Are  they 
wise  or  cunning?  Have  they  learned  to  re- 
strain their  bodily  passions  ?  Have  they 
learned  to  deal  with  their  fellows  in  justice 
and  love  ? 

" '  You  have  set  them  free.  Are  there 
none,  then,  who  toil  for  others  against  their 
will  ?  Are  all  men  free  to  do  the  work  they 
love  best  ? 

"  *  You  have  made  men  one.  Are  there 
no  barriers  of  class  to  keep  man  and  man 
apart?  Does  none  rejoice  in  the  cause  that 
makes  the  many  moan  ?  Do  men  no  longer 
spill  the  blood  of  men  for  their  ambition  and 
the  sweat  of  men  for  their  greed  ?  ' 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  255 

"As  the  Spirit  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
listened,  his  head  sank  to  his  breast. 

"'Your  shame  is  already  upon  me.  My 
great  cities  are  as  yours  were.  My  millions 
live  from  hand  to  mouth.  Those  who  toil 
longest  have  least.  My  thousands  sink  ex- 
hausted before  their  days  are  half  spent. 
My  human  wreckage  multiplies.  Class  faces 
class  in  sullen  distrust.  Their  freedom  and 
knowledge  has  only  made  men  keener  to 
suffer.  Give  me  a  seat  among  you,  and  let 
me  think  why  it  has  been  so.* 

*'  The  others  turned  to  the  Spirit  of  the 
First  Century.  *  Your  promised  redemption 
is  long  in  coming.' 

'* '  But  it  will  come,'  he  replied  "  (Rauschen- 
busch,  Christiaitity  and  the  Social  Crisis). 

I  have  already  said  that  the  last  great 
feature  in  completing  the  work  of  Jesus  is 
the  discipling  of  the  nations.  That  means, 
of  course,  the  modern  missionary  movement. 
The  word  foreign  in  connection  with  that 
movement  is  not  a  wholly  good  word.  In 
the  eye  of  Christ  there  is  no  foreign  land,  to 
the  heart  of  Christ  there  is  no  foreig^n  man. 


256        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE  MASTER 

Professor  James  has  raised  the  question,  What 
will  take  the  place  of  war  as  an  appeal  to  the 
qualities  of  heroism,  courage  and  the  spirit 
of  conquest,  when  war  shall  be  no  more  ?  A 
good  many  people  have  a  tolerant  view  of 
war  because  it  does  bring  out  strongly  ap- 
peal to  certain  great  qualities.  Well,  I  know 
of  nothing  more  likely  to  make  that  appeal 
than  the  campaign  to  rid  the  world  of  evil 
and  teach  the  nations  the  truth  of  Christ. 

In  the  presence  of  evil  Christianity  asserts 
authority.  In  presence  of  all  other  religions  it 
asserts  its  absoluteness.  Comparative  religion 
does  not  mean  that  all  are  on  the  same  basis. 
Christianity  goes  everywhere  saying,  **  There 
is  no  other  name."  It  has  no  right  to  stay  at 
home.     It  has  absolute  right  on  all  the  globe. 

War  makes  masterful  appeal  to  much  that 
is  worst  as  well  as  much  that  is  best  in  men. 
The  missionary  movement  has  the  heroic, 
the  majestic,  the  inspiring  appeal  in  it.  It 
appeals  only  to  the  best.  The  victory  of 
Japan  over  Russia  is  not  so  fascinating  as 
the  possible  conquest  of  both  Japan  and 
Russia   by   our   Master.     Here   is   the   true 


WITH   A   PROGRAM  257 

goal  of  history.  It  is  not  that  Russia  or 
England  or  Germany  or  America  may  rule 
the  world,  but  that  the  King  Eternal,  im- 
mortal, and  invisible,  may  rule  all  lands.  It 
is  said  sometimes  that  England  and  the 
United  States  could  unite  and  whip  the 
world.  But  what  do  they  want  to  whip  the 
world  for?  They  could  unite.  Christian 
England  and  Christian  America,  to  teach 
the  world,  to  redeem  it,  to  take  it  and  ''  bind 
it  in  every  way  by  gold  chains  about  the 
feet  of  God."  And  that  is  worth  while.  For 
all  this  involves  the  founding  of  the  kingdom 
here  and  everywhere  and  now. 

Dean  Stanley  once  visited  the  City  Road 
Chapel,  our  Methodist  Cathedral  in  London. 
He  was  being  shown  through  the  burying 
ground  at  the  rear  of  the  chapel  and  play- 
fully asked  the  old  sexton  "  by  whom  this 
burying  ground  had  been  consecrated." 
That  shrewd  old  man  replied,  **  By  the  bones 
of  that  good  man,  Mr.  John  Wesley."  The 
Dean  was  delighted  with  the  reply.  But 
Mr.  Wesley  did  far  more  and  far  other  than 
consecrate  a  place  where   dead  men  might 


258        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

be  buried.  He  made  safer  and  cleaner 
towns  and  cities  where  living  men  lived. 
His  people  were  expected  to  die  well  after 
living  well.  Dying  well  was  not  the  sole 
test  of  their  religion.  It  is  only  a  degenerate 
Christianity  that  forgets  this  world  and  fixes 
its  eye  solely  on  the  world  to  come.  Feeling 
good  does  not  stand  apart  from  doing  good. 
Many  a  man  boasts  of  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  and  even  of  entire  sanctification  who 
has  not  the  witness  of  the  town  and  does 
nothing  for  the  sanctification  of  life  about 
him.  The  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  does  not 
stand  alone,  but  neither  does  the  doctrine  of 
the  witness.  Liberty  of  opinion,  Christlike 
character  and  social  service  all  go  together. 
Henry  Drummond  sounded  a  note  we  must 
all  hear  when  he  said :  ''  Christ  came  to 
make  a  better  world :  it  was  an  unfinished 
world  ;  it  was  not  wise,  it  was  not  happy, 
it  was  not  pure,  it  was  not  good,  it  was  not 
even  sanitary  :  humanity  was  little  more  than 
raw  material.  Christ's  immediate  work  was 
to  enlist  men  in  a  great  enterprise  for  the 
evolution   of  the   world,   rally   them   into  a 


WITH  A   PROGRAM  259 

great  kingdom  or  society  for  the  carrying 
out  of  His  plans.  The  name  of  this  society 
was  the  Kingdom  of  God.  To  grow  up  in 
the  complacent  belief  that  God  had  no  busi- 
ness in  this  great  world  of  human  beings 
except  to  attend  to  a  few  religious  people 
was  the  negation  of  all  religion.  We  must 
study  the  social  welfare  of  humanity,  the 
spread  of  righteousness,  the  amelioration  of 
life,  the  freeing  of  slaves,  the  elevation  of 
women,  the  purification  of  religion.  Evan- 
gelical Christianity  must  leaven  society." 

All  this  stands  together.  I  advise  you  to 
read  and  study  such  books  as  Peabody's 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question^  Mat- 
hews' The  Social  Teaching  of  Jesiis^  and 
Rauschenbusch's  Christianity  and  the  Social 
Crisis.  But  I  counsel  above  all  that  you 
enter  into  the  uncompleted  work  of  our 
Master  as  it  lies  in  these  great  realms :  the 
redemption  of  the  world  from  evil,  the  dis- 
cipling  of  the  nations,  and  the  establishing 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Enter  into  Christ's 
life.  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto.  I  work." 
Let  us  work  His  works  remembering  how  He 


26o        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

said,  *'  Ye  are  My  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoever 
I  command  you," 

Do  you  remember  Longfellow's  picture  of 
St.  John's  wanderings  in  old  age  over  the 
face  of  the  earth?  Do  you  remember  how 
he  said  to  himself : 

"And  I  remember  still 
The  words,  and  from  whence  they  came, 
Not  he  that  repeateth  the  name 
But  he  that  doeth  the  will. 
And  him  evermore  I  behold 
Walking  in  Galilee, 
Through  the  cornfield's  waving  gold 
By  the  shores  of  the  Beautiful  Sea. 

And  that  voice  still  soundeth  on 
From  the  centuries  that  are  gone 
To  the  centuries  that  shall  be. 
From  all  vain  pomps  and  shows, 
From  the  pride  that  overflows. 

Poor,  sad  humanity 
Through  all  the  dust  and  heat 
Turns  back  with  bleeding  feet 
By  the  weary  round  it  came, 
Unto  the  simple  thought. 
By  the  great  Master  taught. 
And  that  remaineth  still, 
Not  he  that  repeateth  the  name 
But  he  that  doeth  the  will." 


LECTURE  VI 

SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER: 
WITH      A      PERSONALITY 


LECTURE  VI 

SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER: 
WITH  A  PERSONALITY 

THE  valuable  and  suggestive  volume, 
What  Shall  We  Think  of  Chris- 
tianity ^  declares  that  Jesus  left  to 
the  world  three  things :  "  A  people,  a  teach- 
ing, a  power."  We  are  not  far  from  this  line 
of  thought  in  our  studies  together.  Shall  we, 
in  this  closing  hour,  briefly  recall  the  way 
over  which  we  have  come  before  taking  the 
final  look  at  the  subject  before  us  ?  We  went 
into  the  School  of  Christ  to  acquire  a  truth, 
to  make  a  life  plan,  and  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  a  person  ;  all  this  in  order  that 
we  might  come  out  into  hfe  with  a  truth, 
with  a  way  and  with  a  life.  The  School  of 
Christ,  like  all  true  schools,  seeks  to  make 
men  who  know,  men  who  can,  and  men  who 
are.     All    schools   endeavour   to    give    their 

pupils  knowledge,  eflficiency  and  character. 

263 


264        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

There  have  been  many  theories  of  education 
from  Socrates  down.  The  emphasis  has  not 
always  maintained  a  perfect  balance  between 
elements,  but  no  historic  theory  of  education 
has  failed  to  include  these  three  elements  in 
some  sort  of  proportion.  Some  have  broken 
down  in  practice  because  they  have  failed  to 
preserve  these  qualities  in  a  proper  equi- 
librium. Education  can  easily  become  top- 
heavy  or  one-sided.  Thus  it  may  become 
predominantly  scientific,  or  predominantly 
technical,  or  predominantly  literary,  or  pre- 
dominantly religious.  Whenever  either  edu- 
cation or  civilization  does  thus  fall  under  the 
sway  of  one  element,  no  matter  how  good  in 
itself  such  element  may  be,  the  result  is  bad. 
Guizot's  famous  generalization  holds.  You 
remember  how  that  profound  student  put  the 
case : 

"  Guizot  shows  that,  as  a  rule,  the  evolu- 
tion of  each  of  the  great  phases  of  ancient 
civilization  was  in  obedience  to  some  domi- 
nant principle,  to  some  element  which  gained 
complete  mastery,  and  developed  civilization 
in  subordination  to  itself.     He  shows  how,  as 


WITH   A  PERSONALITY  265 

a  consequence  of  this  domination  of  a  single 
element,  each  of  those  ancient  civilizations 
either  sank  into  immobility,  as  in  Egypt  or 
in  India,  or  was  developed  with  astonishing 
rapidity  and  brilliancy,  only  to  decline  and 
decay  just  as  rapidly,  as  in  Greece  and  the 
commercial  communities  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. On  the  other  hand  he  shows  that, 
in  the  modern  civilization  of  Europe,  no  one 
element  has  ever  become  powerful  enough 
to  exercise  permanent  despotism  over  the 
others ;  that  many  strong  elements  have  ex- 
isted together,  stimulating  each  other,  re- 
straining each  other,  as  monarchy,  ecclesias- 
ticism,  aristocracy,  municipal  liberty ;  and 
that  as  a  consequence,  European  civilization 
is  far  more  rich  and  varied  than  the  ancient, 
far  longer-lived,  inclosing  in  itself  principles 
and  powers  which  by  their  action  on  each 
other  constantly  renew  the  youth  of  modern 
states." 

Our  age  has  many  elements  but  it  is  prob- 
ably preeminently  a  commercial  age  and  so 
far  in  danger. 

Christianity  has  not  had  an  easy  time  pre- 


266        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

serving  the  proper  balance,  nor  has  it  always 
escaped  the  consequences  of  its  failure  so  to 
do.  A  doctrinal  age,  an  age  which  creates 
great  creeds  and  confessions  is  quite  likely  to 
ignore  human  conditions.  Then  comes  a 
reaction  in  which  the  Church  cares  much  for 
men  and  does  not  seem  to  care  equally 
for  the  forms  of  her  faith  or  her  truth.  The 
pendulum  swings  from  one  extreme  to  the 
other.  Still  we  feel  the  imperfection  of  it  all 
and  keep  trying  to  preserve  a  balance  be- 
tween philosophy  and  philanthropy,  between 
creed  and  charity,  between  things  which  are 
all  good  and  which  all  tend  to  become  ex- 
clusive. 

Now  a  student  goes  into  the  School  of 
Christ  not  for  one  thing,  but  for  at  least  three. 
He  aims  to  obtain  a  body  of  doctrine,  but  also 
much  more  than  that.  He  aims  to  acquire  a 
practical  life  plan,  but  also  much  more.  He 
seeks  a  personal  acquaintance,  but  also  much 
more  than  that.  Jesus*  own  words  lay  hold 
upon  him,  as  bearing  upon  himself  as  well  as 
upon  Jesus :  "  The  way,  the  truth,  the  life." 
These  words  seem  to  touch  conduct,  creed 


WITH   A  PERSONALITY  267 

and  character ;  activities,  doctrine  and  life. 
The  three  are  not  separated.  Thus  the 
student  comes  into  contact  with  Christ's 
deeds,  His  truth  and  His  Person.  The  elect- 
ive system  does  not  seem  to  apply  here. 
None  of  this  can  be  omitted.  For  the  stu- 
dent of  the  School  of  Christ  must  become  a 
man  of  truth,  a  man  of  activity  and  a  man  of 
character.  He  must  possess  knowledge,  ef- 
ficiency and  personality.  He  has  the  vision 
of  learning  things,  knowing  things,  doing 
things  and  being  something.  It  makes  a 
difference  whether  he  has  a  right  body  of 
doctrine,  a  right  schedule  of  activities,  and  a 
right  character.  Horace  Bushnell  once  wrote 
of  himself:  "About  this  time  I  passed  into 
a  vein  of  inclusiveness."  How  rich  and  sug- 
gestive that  sentence  is !  It  reaches  clear 
through  all  we  have  been  thinking  during 
these  days.  A  vein  of  inclusiveness  that 
gathers  up  into  possession  knowledge  of 
Christ's  perfect  truth,  knowledge  of  His  per- 
fect purpose  and  acquaintance  with  His  per- 
fect life  !  I  do  not  say  personal  knowledge 
and  personal  acquaintance  because  I  cannot 


268        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

think  of  knowledge  and  acquaintance  which 
are  not  personal. 

Then  this  vein  of  inclusiveness  takes  up 
as  its  outcome  the  interpretation  of  Christ's 
perfect  truth,  the  continuing  to  do  Christ's 
perfect  work  and  the  showing  forth  of  His 
perfect  character.  We  call  the  first  preach- 
ing and  teaching.  We  call  the  second 
Christian  work  and  activity.  We  call  the 
third  Christian  character.  And  all  that  He 
said  and  did  and  was  is  so  perfect,  and  what 
we  say  and  do  and  are  is  so  imperfect,  that 
we  are  ashamed  to  declare  that  we  have  been 
students  in  the  School  of  Christ.  Still  we 
will  go  on  trying,  still  go  on  studying  His 
truth,  still  go  on  seeking  to  do  His  work,  still 
go  on  longing  to  be  like  Him,  still  go 
on  submitting  ourselves  to  His  influence, 
hoping  that  some  day  we  shall  so  speak, 
so  act,  and  so  live  that  again  it  shall  be 
written : 

**  Now  when  they  beheld  the  boldness  of 
Peter  and  John,  and  had  perceived  that  they 
were  unlearned  and  ignorant  men,  they 
marvelled ;    and    they    took    knowledge   of 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  269 

them,  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus"  (Acts 
iv.  13). 

I  have  spoken  very  imperfectly  if  by  this 
time  it  is  not  perfectly  clear  that  I  am  plead- 
ing for  unity  rather  than  division  in  both  the 
educational  process  and  its  result.  At  the 
risk  of  wearisomeness  I  have  kept  on  repeat- 
ing the  three  great  terms,  teaching,  activities 
and  person,  and  have  urged  that  no  one  of 
them  can  be  omitted  from  our  vital  knowl- 
edge. Selection  is  easy,  and  partial  courses 
are  very  popular.  At  bottom  this  is  probably 
the  cause  of  parties  in  theology  and  the 
Church.  Parties  arose  very  early.  The 
Church  was  yet  young  when  men  began  to 
array  themselves  under  great  names  and  to 
say,  "  I  am  of  Paul,  I  am  of  Apollos  and  I  am 
of  Cephas."  The  theology  of  the  Church  has 
been  Pauline,  Petrine  and  Johannine,  with  a 
large  party  preferring  practical  James  to  any 
of  the  others.  It  has  been  so  from  the  early 
years  until  this  day.  We  are  classified  as 
Calvinists,  or  Arminians  or  something  else.  A 
dominant  personality  is  at  once  a  source  of 
strength  and  a  source  of  danger  to  the  Church 


270        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE   MASTER 

in  a  given  age.  He  leads  mightily,  but  he 
often  warps  individuals  and  makes  parties. 
So  that  persons  and  churches  must  correct 
and  balance  the  influence  of  a  strong  man 
lest  they  become  one-sided  and  unbalanced. 

Now  it  is  the  wonder  and  glory  of  the  in- 
fluence of  Jesus  that  it  makes  no  parties  and' 
unmakes  no  individuals.  Without  caution, 
without  fear,  without  the  use  of  any  correct- 
ive measures  to  balance  any  excessive  influ- 
ence a  man  or  a  church  may  submit  to  His 
influence  and  devoutly  pray  to  be  made  in 
this  likeness.  He  has  given  in  His  own  life  a 
new  definition  and  illustration  of  perfection. 
He  has  given  for  men  a  new  conception  and 
ideal  of  personal  character.  Students  easily 
copy  the  traits  of  favourite  and  masterful 
teachers.  The  result  is  not  always  happy. 
But  we  can  think  without  anxiety  of  the 
process  described  in  these  familiar  words : 

"  For  whom  He  foreknew,  He  also  fore- 
ordained to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of 
His  Son,  that  He  might  be  the  first-born 
among  many  brethren  "  (Rom.  viii.  29). 

*'  But  we  all,  with  unveiled  face  beholding 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  27 1 

as  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are 
transformed  into  the  same  image  from  glory 
to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit " 
(2  Cor.  iii.  18). 

It  is  no  wonder  that  men  are  drawn  to  and 
fascinated  by  greatness  in  other  men.  It  is 
not  a  sign  of  weakness  but  of  strength. 
Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  and  Em- 
erson's Representative  Men  both  illustrate 
the  universal  search  for  strength  and  great- 
ness. In  many  respects  they  both  reveal  the 
disappointing  result  of  that  search.  Here  is 
Christianity's  strength.  Its  Person  is  able 
to  subdue  all  things  and  all  types  unto  Him- 
self. He  is  not  classed  with  the  men  of  ac- 
tion, but  He  is  the  chief  man  of  action  in  his- 
tory. He  is  not  ranked  with  the  men  of  art, 
but  He  leads  them  all.  He  is  neither  artist, 
warrior,  poet  nor  author  in  any  technical 
sense,  but  is  in  His  perfect  personality  the 
Lord  of  all  such.  He  dwelt  in  one  century 
and  one  land,  and  overleaped  all  local,  na- 
tional and  temporary  conditions  and  became 
the  "  first  citizen  of  the  world."  It  belongs 
to  other  men  to  have  characteristics,  it  be- 


272    SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

longed  to  Jesus  to  be  universal.  Every  type 
of  man  feels  at  once  the  supremacy  and 
mastery  of  Jesus.  He  is  at  home  in  this  new 
century  even  more  than  in  the  first,  and  so 
much  at  home  in  the  Western  world  that  we 
almost  forget  that  He  was  a  native  of  the 
Orient. 

There  is  no  danger  in  the  submission  of 
one's  own  personality  to  such  a  person.  He 
restores  and  completes  the  individual.  Men 
become  complete  in  Him  not  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  qualities  but  by  the  perfecting  and 
balancing  of  qualities.  He  had  the  passion 
for  truth,  the  passion  for  service  and  the  pas- 
sion for  personality.  Problems  concern  us, — 
the  social  problem,  the  race  problem,  the 
missionary  problem.  Men  concerned  Him. 
He  was  always  seeking  to  create  character. 
Only  better  men  can  do  better  work.  Only 
wiser  men  can  teach  more  wisely.  Peabody 
puts  it  in  a  sentence,  for  every  century  of 
Christ,  when  he  says  :  "  The  more  intricate 
is  the  machinery  of  the  world  the  more 
competent  must  be  its  engineers."  Deeper 
than  the  question  of  the  kind  of  work  we  are 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  273 

to  do,  deeper  even  than  the  question  of  the 
truth  we  are  going  to  teach,  is  the  question 
of  the  kind  of  men  we  are  going  to  be. 
Christ  is  still  in  the  business  of  taking  modern 
Johns  and  Simons  and  Matthews  and  en- 
larging them  so  that  they  can  teach  the 
larger  truth  and  do  the  greater  works  of  the 
twentieth  century. 

"  The  Christian  ministry  is  the  largest  field 
for  the  growth  of  a  human  soul  that  this 
world  offers.  In  it  he  who  is  faithful  must  go 
on  learning  more  and  more  forever.     .     .     . 

"  It  is  continual  climbing  which  opens  con- 
tinually wider  prospects.  It  repeats  the  ex- 
perience of  Christ's  disciples,  of  whom  their 
Lord  was  always  making  larger  men  and 
then  giving  them  the  larger  truth  of  which 
their  enlarged  natures  had  become  capable." 

It  is  not  alone  that  His  personality  came 
above  the  horizon  there  in  the  first  century. 
That  has  seemed  so  wonderful  that  we  have 
not  always  remembered  the  rest.  But  go 
back  to  Christ's  first  great  sermon.  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  been  called  the 
Magna  Charta  of  the  kingdom.     What  was 


274        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

in  it  then,  what  Ungers  in  it  yet  with  abiding 
force  and  meaning?  A  new  prophet  had 
spoken  after  centuries  of  silence.  Even  their 
fathers  had  never  heard  any  one  speak  Hke 
this.  A  new  message  had  come  as  out 
of  the  heavens.  Then  as  later  they  mar- 
velled at  the  words  which  proceeded  out  of 
His  mouth.  But  the  men  entranced  with  the 
new  prophet  speaking  this  new  word  saw 
with  swift  and  insistent  clearness  that  a  new 
self  had  arisen  before  their  view.  It  is  the 
magna  charta  of  the  individual  as  well  as  of 
the  kingdom.  Some  would  remember  one 
sentence  and  some  another  as  they  went  away 
after  Jesus  had  spoken,  but  the  one  sentence 
that  each  would  remember,  the  sentence  ring- 
ing in  their  hearts  like  "  the  mellow  lin-lan- 
lone  of  evening  bells,"  was  this  :  "  Ye  there- 
fore shall  be  perfect  even  as  your  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect."  This  meant  not  only  a 
new  truth  but  a  new  personality.  They  knew 
the  commandments  which  they  had  kept  and 
broken.  They  knew  the  great  names  of  their 
noble  history.  Some  of  them  had  tried  to  be 
as   good  as  Moses  or  Abraham  or  David. 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  275 

Some  had  succeeded  fairly  well.  But  here 
was  a  new  ideal.  It  stood  there  in  **  living 
definition  "  before  them.  This  new  theology 
of  Jesus  meant  a  new  humanity  in  Jesus. 
Men  must  be  different  since  Jesus  has  come. 
The  coming  man  must  come  by  Him.  After 
that  first  sermon  many  words  will  be  spoken 
and  written ;  many  things  will  be  done ; 
miracles  will  be  wrought  upon  nature,  upon 
life  and  upon  person ;  prayers  will  be  made, 
crosses  carried  and  graves  opened ;  Holy 
Spirit  will  come  and  Holy  Word  be  written, 
but  this  will  be  done  that  holy  men  may 
come  to  be. 

Mighty  enterprises  need  mighty  men. 
Small  men  undertake  their  control  and  both 
are  ruined.  Holy  enterprises  need  holy  men. 
Unclean  hands  lay  hold  of  such  enterprises 
to  their  eternal  hurt.  What  an  active  person 
shall  carry  to  heathen  or  to  slum  will  depend 
upon  what  one  is,  as  well  as  upon  what  one 
knows.  I  know  a  city  missionary  who  brings 
only  activity  and  good  intentions  to  his  task. 
His  hands  are  busy  but  empty.  He  distrib- 
utes apples  and  potatoes  to  the  poor,  but  his 


276   SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

own  life  is  barren  of  the  fruit  of  the  spirit. 
He  has  forgotten  that  a  rich  hfe  is  the  best 
gift  to  poverty.  The  man  of  the  twentieth 
century  like  the  man  of  the  first  must  give 
Jesus  full  and  sovereign  power  in  his  life. 
He  must  not  only  learn  Jesus'  truth  and  con- 
tinue Jesus'  activities.  He  must  himself  be 
transformed  into  the  same  image.  It  is  piti- 
ful to  see  any  one,  no  matter  how  earnest  or 
zealous,  touching  empty  hands  with  empty 
hands;  pitiful  to  see  one  trying  to  help  in 
slums  or  in  heathenism  himself  unspiritual- 
ized,  untransformed,  unchristlike. 

There  is  an  ancient  Jewish  legend  to  the 
effect  that  the  true  pronunciation  of  the  name 
of  Jehovah  has  been  lost,  and  that  whoever 
recovers  it  will  have  open  to  him  the  secrets 
and  forces  of  nature  and  hold  in  his  hand 
the  hearts  of  men.  This  is  more  than  a 
legend.  There  came  one  who  did  pronounce 
the  Eternal  Name  with  true  filial  accent, 
heart  of  Son  answering  to  heart  of  Father, 
character  of  Son  answering  to  character  of 
Father,  life  of  Son  answering  to  life  of  Fa- 
ther.    They  were  one,  in  purpose  and  char- 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  277 

acter.  At  the  word  of  that  true  Son  tossing 
waves  grew  quiet.  Deaf  ears  and  blind  eyes 
opened  as  He  spoke.  Dead  men  arose  at 
His  command.  Men  in  trade  and  men  at 
work  followed  Him  when  He  told  them  to. 
The  poor  clung  to  Him  in  love,  the  weak 
gave  themselves  to  Him  in  faith,  the  strong 
in  obedience,  the  rich  in  adoring  love.  His 
way,  His  truth,  His  life,  being  the  way,  the 
truth  and  the  life  gave  Him  power.  He 
knew  how  to  speak  the  ineffable  name.  He 
was  sovereign  Lord  of  nature  and  the  world 
of  men  is  at  His  feet. 

The  significance  of  the  incarnation  is  much 
more  likely  to  be  underestimated  than  over- 
estimated. Its  meaning  as  a  revelation  is 
admitted.  In  Christ  God  revealed  Himself. 
Its  significance  for  truth  is  clear  enough. 
Jesus  was  the  truth  and  He  taught  the  truth. 
Its  significance  for  redemption  is  beyond  all 
dispute.  "  There  is  no  other  name  given 
under  heaven  or  among  men  whereby  men 
may  be  saved."  He  alone  is  a  redeemer 
from  sin.  He  alone  has  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins.     The  significance  of  the  incar- 


278   SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

nation  for  faith  and  doctrine  has  had  con- 
tinued emphasis  through  the  Christian 
centuries.  All  this  is  well.  We  have  not 
begun  to  exhaust  the  meaning  of  the  in- 
carnation in  these  realms.  It  is  the  supreme 
fact  in  history. 

But  the  significance  of  the  incarnation  for 
personality,  for  the  conception  of  personality 
and  for  personality  itself  will  bear  an  empha- 
sis it  has  not  often  had.  I  mean  something 
more  than  Christ  in  religious  experience.  I 
mean  Christ  in  human  life,  the  new  incarna- 
tion. God  in  all  men's  life  means  rather 
more  than  God  in  one  life  alone.  The 
incarnation  is  not  a  thing  to  fear  or  to  set 
apart.  It  is  a  thing  to  rejoice  in  and  set 
into  the  very  centre  of  life.  In  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being. 

Christ  has  given  us  a  new  conception  of 
human  personality.  He  not  only  defined 
God,  He  defined  man.  He  not  only  made 
clear  the  divine  personality,  showing  its 
reality  and  disclosing  its  qualities,  He  illus- 
trated and  in  His  own  person  defined  human 
personality. 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  279 

He  brought  a  new  revelation,  a  new 
Gospel,  a  new  religion.  He  brought  in  His 
own  Person  and  character  a  new  and  com- 
manding ideal.  And  He  brought  into 
human  life  a  new  and  transcendent  power 
by  which  men  might  be  renewed  in  His  own 
image.  In  the  Christian  plan  a  new  word 
goes  before  personality,  a  word  which  sets  it 
apart  from  all  other  conceptions.  Personality 
as  conceived  by  philosophy  or  science  apart 
from  Christianity  lacks  that  word.  Jesus 
Christ  the  redeemer  has  set  out  into  the 
world  the  conception  of  a  redeemed  person- 
ality. He  told  men  about  God.  Men  have 
thought  of  God  under  the  term  absolute. 
Christ  did  not  use  that  term  but  He  left  us 
in  no  doubt  about  the  absoluteness  of  His 
Father.  He  told  men  that  this  absolute 
Father  was  in  moral  quality  and  personal 
character  like  Himself.  **  I  and  My  Father 
are  one."  **  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
Him."  We  reason  back  from  Jesus  whom 
we  have  seen  to  His  Father  whom  we  have 
not  seen,  and  make  no  mistake.  Then  He 
said,  "  Ye  shall  be  perfect,"  and  one  of  the 


28o        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

early  apostles  caught  up  the  idea  in  the  words 
"  We  shall  be  like  Him." 

"  And  God  is  always  like  Jesus."  No 
matter  where  He  appears  or  how  He  reveals 
Himself,  it  is  in  this  character.  But  the 
truth  of  a  Christlike  God  compels  the  doctrine 
and  awakens  the  expectation  of  a  Christlike 
man.  The  meaning  of  the  incarnation  for 
personality  breaks  in  upon  our  metaphysics 
and  our  theology  like  a  new  personal  revela- 
tion. 

"It  belongs  to  Christ's  priesthood,  as 
conceived  in  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews  (i) 
that  in  Jesus  God  should  see  His  ideal  for 
humanity  for  the  first  time  completely  real- 
ized in  a  human  life  ;  (2)  that  the  purpose 
and  effect  of  this  realization  should  be  the 
reproduction  of  relations  of  similar  intimacy 
in  the  case  of  all  those  who  through  Jesus 
have  found  the  true  way  of  access  to 
God.     ... 

"The  perfect  man,  as  Christianity  con- 
ceives him,  would  be  one  who  should  unite 
in  himself  the  consciousness  of  untroubled 
communion  with  God  and  the  self-forgetting 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  28 1 

love  of  man  which  characterize  the  experi- 
ence of  Jesus,  as  our  Gospels  portray  it  to 
us.     .     .     . 

"  It  is  not  that  in  Jesus  we  have  the 
manifestation,  for  a  brief  period,  of  divine 
powers  and  relations  normally  absent  from 
human  life  ;  but  that  in  Him  for  the  first 
time  there  has  been  completely  revealed  in 
a  human  life  that  abiding  relation  between 
God  and  man  which  gives  life  its  profoundest 
significance,  and  which  warrants  our  faith 
in  the  ultimate  realization  of  the  divine  ideal 
in  humanity  "  (Wm.  Adams  Brown,  Outline 
of  Christian  Theology). 

We  cannot  teach  the  truth  of  Christ  unless 
we  have  first  learned  the  truth  from  Him. 
We  cannot  carry  to  our  age  the  plans  and 
activities  of  Christ  unless  we  have  learned 
His  plans  and  activities  from  Him.  Shall 
I  go  on  ?  Dare  I  go  on  ?  Dare  I  or  any  one 
stop?  We  cannot  repeat  and  interpret  and 
impart  the  life  of  Christ  unless  we  have  from 
Him  received  that  life.  There  is  a  story  of 
a  Chinaman  named  Wang  who  as  teacher 
and  preacher  exerted  a  wonderful  influence. 


282        SENT   FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

The  other  Chinese  Christians  said  of  him  : 
**  There  was  no  difference  between  him  and 
the  Book." 

It  appals  us  to  read  soberly,  intensely, 
those  early  words  about  the  influence  of 
our  Master  upon  personality.  We  have 
taken  those  rich  Oriental  terms  and  either 
converted  them  into  doctrinal  shibboleth 
or  the  hard  terms  of  Western  theology.  We 
have  taken  the  personal  quality,  the  red 
blood,  out  of  too  many  of  them.  Can  we 
face  such  terms  as  these  with  composure  ? 
"Living  Epistles,"  "Witnesses  of  Me," 
*'  Henceforth  I  call  you  friends,"  "  Now  are 
we  the  sons  of  God,"  "  Put  on  Christ  as  a 
garment,"  "  Christ  in  you,"  "  If  any  man  be 
in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creation,"  "  He  has 
passed  from  death  unto  life."  Is  this  lan- 
guage only  for  first  centuries  and  for  New 
Testaments,  written  in  simpler  ages?  Or 
does  it  have  a  personal  meaning  for  men 
to-day  ?  The  Bible  has  been  interpreted  in 
terms  of  theology.  Will  it  bear  interpreta- 
tion in  terms  of  life?  Will  it  finally  bear 
any  other  interpretation?    The  incarnation 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  283 

has  been  interpreted  in  terms  of  metaphysics, 
theology  and  scholasticism.  Will  it  bear 
interpretation  in  terms  of  personality  ?  Will 
it  finally  bear  any  other  interpretation  than 
the  personal  one  ?  Life  itself  has  been  inter- 
preted in  terms  of  science,  psychology,  meta- 
physics and  theology.  The  use  of  abstract 
terms  has  been  free  and  constant.  Will 
life  bear  interpretation  in  terms  of  the  in- 
carnation? Will  it  finally  bear  any  other 
interpretation  ? 

Can  we  ever  get  down  to  the  bottom  or 
up  to  the  top  of  the  words  Fatherhood  as 
applied  to  God  and  Sonship  as  applied  to 
man  except  by  way  of  the  incarnation  and 
its  inevitable  implications  for  personality  ? 
Do  we  not  here  obtain  the  only  true  con- 
ception of  personality  and  its  qualities  ?  Do 
we  not  here  obtain  the  only  true  conception 
of  what  God's  Fatherhood  means  as  a 
present  fact  and  a  vital  force  in  life  ?  Do 
we  not  in  this  one  instance  of  perfect  Son- 
ship  obtain  the  only  true  conception  of  what 
sonship  means  to  any  modern  man  ? 

By  personality,  as  applied  to  Jesus,  I  do 


284        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

not  mean  the  list  of  His  good  qualities.  A 
living  preacher  has  named  them  as  follows  : 
**  Strength,  sincerity,  reasonableness,  poise, 
originality,  narrowness,  breadth,  trust, 
brotherliness,  optimism,  chivalry,  firmness, 
generosity,  candour,  enthusiasm,  gladness, 
humility,  patience,  courage,  indignation, 
reverence,  holiness  and  greatness."  Long 
ago  Bushnell  in  his  famous  tenth  chapter 
did  something  of  the  same  sort.  But  there 
is  almost  no  end  to  such  a  list.  Such  ad- 
ditional words  as  meekness  and  lowHness  of 
heart  rise  almost  spontaneously  to  one's  lips. 

Personality  is  not  simply  a  list  of  qualities 
however  noble  and  admirable.  Character  is 
something  more  than  characteristics.  The 
personality  of  God  is  not  stated  when  His 
attributes  have  been  named.  Religion  can 
neither  live  nor  move  in  the  region  of  ab- 
stractions. 

The  definition  of  personality  is  not  easy. 
It  is  a  fundamental  term.  Writers  have 
generally  agreed  upon  certain  elements  as 
making  the  essence  of  personality.  Some- 
times four  terms  are  used,  sometimes  only 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  285 

two.  If  four  they  are  these  :  Self-conscious- 
ness, consciousness  of  power,  consciousness 
of  obligation,  self-determination.  When  two 
terms  only  are  employed  they  are  self-con- 
sciousness and  self-determination,  and  these 
are  made  to  include  the  others.  Frederick 
W.  Robertson  said  that  '*  personality  is  made 
up  of  three  elements :  consciousness,  charac- 
ter and  will."  For  our  purposes  here,  I  pre- 
fer to  use  the  four  familiar  terms  already 
quoted,  and  to  state  them  a  little  more  per- 
sonally and  a  little  less  academically  than 
before.  In  this  I  am  following  from  memory 
a  small  but  exceedingly  luminous  volume  by 
Canon  Farrar.  I  have  not  seen  the  little 
book  for  twenty  years  but  its  outline  cannot 
be  forgotten.  Self-consciousness  seems  to 
lie  at  the  base  both  for  Jesus  and  for  us. 
The  first  fact  of  personality  must  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  words :  "  I  am."  This  must 
be  fundamental  both  for  God  and  man. 
Jesus  is  the  Hving  definition  of  this  term 
both  for  God  and  man.  When  He  says 
*'  Before  Abraham  was  I  am,"  He  seems  to 
make   luminous   those   older   words :    "  Say 


286   SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  MASTER 

that  I  AM  hath  sent  thee."  Divine  self- 
consciousness  and  human  self-consciousness 
meet  in  Jesus  and  in  Him  each  is  defined. 
And  just  as  Jesus  has  sharpened  and  clari- 
fied the  idea  of  a  personal  God,  individual 
and  self-controlled,  distinct  from  though 
ruling  in  all  other  existence,  so  He  has  ac- 
centuated and  elevated  the  idea  of  individual 
life.  In  Jesus  Christ  God  uttered  Himself  to 
the  world ;  in  Jesus  Christ  the  individual 
man  became  conscious  of  himself.  When 
Jesus  said  to  Philip  :  '*  He  that  hath  seen  Me 
hath  seen  Him,"  He  set  out  into  the  world  a 
conception  of  a  personal  God  never  before  so 
clear,  never  since  dim,  and  never  since  sur- 
passed. And  when  He  said,  *'  I  in  them  and' 
Thou  in  Me,"  He  lifted  individual  human 
personality  to  a  height  towards  which  the 
whole  creation  moves.  He  did  not  intend 
to  reveal  a  vague  and  impersonal  God.  He 
did  not  intend  to  reveal  a  vague  or  weak  or 
low  conception  of  human  personality.  Never 
was  any  God  so  close  to,  so  identified  with, 
so  regnant  in  the  world,  as  was  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  He  was 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  287 

all  this  because  He  was  so  transcendent  over 
it  all,  because  He  could  say  "I  am  that  I 
am."  Never  was  any  man  so  completely 
identified  with  humanity,  so  merged  in  hu- 
man brotherhood,  so  filled  and  possessed  by 
the  infinite  as  the  man  of  Jesus  Christ,  but 
the  man  could  be  all  this  because  so  com- 
pletely an  individual  man.  Christianity's 
man  is  Christianity's  indisputable  answer  to 
the  world.     He  can  say  *'  I  am." 

The  second  fact  of  personality  is  its  con- 
sciousness of  power,  expressed  in  the  words 
"  I  can."  It  has  the  abiding  sense  of  free- 
dom, of  power,  of  self-control,  of  self-grasp. 
The  soul's  grasp  upon  itself,  its  ability  to 
stand  with  or  to  stand  against  the  world,  to 
stand  with  or  against  God  Himself  is  a  fact 
manifest  in  all  real  life. 

*'  1  am  the  Captain  of  my  Soul. 

*'  So  near  is  glory  to  our  dust, 

So  nigh  is  God  to  man 

When  duty  whispers  low  *  Thou  must ' 

The  youth  replies,  *I  can.* 
***** 

**  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how ; 

Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 


288        SENT  FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

Men  cannot  do  everything  in  this  world 
of  vast  forces  and  gigantic  tasks,  but  in  the 
face  of  all  forces  men  can  choose  and  that  is 
power. 

The  third  word  that  personality  speaks  is 
the  word  "I  ought,"  expressing  the  sense  of 
obligation.  This,  too,  runs  clear  up  and 
down  the  scale  of  conscious,  personal  being. 
It  is  a  word  of  God  as  well  as  a  word  of  man, 
a  word  of  man  because  a  word  of  God.  The 
man  who  can  knows  that  he  must  be  the 
man  who  does.  The  law  governs  all  being, 
divine  as  well  as  human.  The  difference 
between  the  perfect  God  and  the  imperfect 
man  is  not  in  the  law  that  applies  but  in  the 
free  application  of  the  law.  What  the  per- 
fect God  ought  to  do  that  He  does.  What 
the  imperfect  man  ought,  and  knows  that  he 
ought  to  do  that  often  he  does  not.  And 
this  is  the  essence  of  wretchedness  in  man 
for  a  contradiction  has  broken  into  person- 
ality. He  is  blessed  and  not  wretched  only 
when  the  perfect  law  of  personality  perfectly 
operates.  The  breaking  of  the  law  creates 
the  body  of  death. 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  289 

The  sharper  the  sense  of  individuality,  the 
larger  the  consciousness  of  power,  the  deeper 
and  more  compelling  is  the  sense  of  obliga- 
tion. All  of  this  reached  its  visible  climax  in 
the  earthly  life  of  our  Master.  Because  He 
was  what  He  was  and  could  do  what  He 
could  do  He  had  the  insistent  sense  that  He 
must.  It  was  He  and  not  another  who  said, 
*'  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent 
Me."  He  knew  that  He  could,  and  He  did. 
He  did  it  so  perfectly  that  at  the  end  He 
could  look  His  Father  straight  in  the  face 
and  say,  "  I  have  finished  the  work  Thou 
gavest  Me  to  do."  It  is  not  easy  to  go  on. 
Human  personality  has  so  many  gaps  in  it. 
In  the  face  of  this  perfection  of  Jesus,  our 
lives  have  so  many  breaks  and  contradictions 
that  we  are  ashamed  to  face  ourselves. 

The  fourth  word  of  personality  is  the  word 
**  I  will,"  expressing  determination.  Self- 
consciousness  must  be  completed  in  self- 
direction  ;  self-assertion  in  self-surrender  to 
the  highest.  "  Master,  I  will  follow  Thee." 
Everything  lies  in  that  sentence,  the  recogni- 
tion of  self,   the  recognition  of   power,  the 


290        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

recognition  of  freedom,  the  recognition  of 
obligation,  and  the  perfect  self-determination. 
Personality  has  found  its  Master,  and  by  per- 
fect act  of  will  has  gladly  yielded  itself  to  Him. 
This  shoots  through  Jesus'  own  life.  He 
walked  this  way.  We  who  are  in  His  school 
go  in  His  company.  Listen :  **  I  have  the 
power  to  lay  it  down.  I  have  the  power  to 
take  it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  from  Me." 
**  I  lay  it  down  for  the  sheep."  This  was 
His  Father's  will.  This  was  His  own  meat. 
He  Hved  on  this.  He  delighted  in  this. 
Once  in  perfect  manner 

*'Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life  and  smote  on  all  the 
chords  with  might, 
Smote   the  chord  of  self  that  trembling  passed  in 
music  out  of  sight." 

Circumstances  have  all  changed.  Em- 
phasis upon  particular  qualities  is  not  what 
it  was.  But  through  changing  centuries 
Jesus  remains  the  unchanging  pattern  of  a 
perfect  personality.  The  incarnation  took 
place,  as  it  must  have  done,  in  a  particular 
place  and  at  a  particular  time,  but  the  incar- 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  291 

nation  became  for  human  life  and  personality 
a  fact  without  the  limitations  of  either  time 
or  place.  The  revelation  of  God  made  in 
time  becomes  valid  for  all  time.  The  revela- 
tion of  personality  likewise  becomes  valid  for 
all  ages.  The  incarnation  has  a  continuous 
value  as  the  pattern  for  personality.  It  is 
not  an  isolated  fact.  It  fulfilled  ages  preced- 
ing it,  and  fills  full  the  ages  following.  Our 
Master  is  ever  our  Master,  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever.  He  abides  through 
all  changing  conditions,  the  ever  living  defi- 
nition of  character. 

All  this  might  be  unbearable.  Certain 
kinds  of  ability  simply  oppress  and  over- 
whelm men.  Human  limitations  are  so 
many  and  so  marked  that  perfection  in  any 
one  simply  seems  to  set  such  an  one  apart 
from  all  ordinary  life.  Jesus  might  have  re- 
vealed a  perfect  moral  standard.  He  might 
have  renewed  the  ancient  precepts.  He 
might  have  set  up  a  new  law  for  conduct 
and  character.  He  might  have  revealed  the 
infinite  life  and  have  left  us  simply  with  an 
acute  sense  of  its  distance  from  us  and  its 


292         SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

elevation  above  us.  He  would  thus  have 
shown  Himself  full  of  truth  but  not  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  Bagehot  once  said  :  "  Men 
are  guided  by  type  not  by  argument."  Jesus 
gives  us  type,  not  argument.  The  difference 
between  Socrates  and  Jesus  has  more  than 
once  been  observed.  **  The  one  argues,  the 
other  reveals."  The  one  holds  up  ideals, 
the  other  is  an  ideal.  The  one  defines  the 
pattern,  the  other  is  a  pattern. 

But  still  even  this  might  offer  only  dis- 
couragement unless  Jesus  were  both  pattern 
and  power.  It  is  worse  than  useless  to 
heighten  one's  sense  of  perfection  unless  the 
power  to  attain  perfection  be  increased.  In 
Phillips  Brooks'  Bohlen  Lectures  on  **  The 
Influence  of  Jesus"  he  said  :  "  Nothing  is  so 
imperfect,  nothing,  indeed,  is  so  melancholy, 
so  tragical  as  a  pattern  set  before  a  man 
which  he  has  no  power  to  attain."  There 
must  be  a  supreme  standard,  and  there  must 
also  be  an  efficient  power  if  life  is  not  to  be 
mocked.  Jesus  cannot  be  simply  an  ideal, 
like  a  statue  on  a  pedestal.  He  must  be  the 
power   of    life   even   more   than   its   model. 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  293 

And  this,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  Jesus  is. 
Once  more  the  present  tense  is  used.  You 
would  agree  that  Jesus  was  both  a  model  to 
and  a  power  in  those  earlier  lives.  It  has 
been  the  strength  of  our  Christian  experience 
and  belief  that  they  have  been  rooted  in  a 
Christian  history.  It  has  often  been  their 
weakness  that  they  have  lacked  in  vital 
continuity  and  have  not  employed  all  the 
tenses  of  life.  Christ  was  and  is  and  is  to  be. 
•'  I  am  He  that  was  dead  and  am  alive  and 
alive  for  evermore."  The  Christ  of  to-day 
guarantees  for  life  the  permanence  of  the 
grace  and  truth  which  once  came  by  Him. 
He  is  still  immanent,  evermore  saying,  "  My 
Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work."  The 
imitation  of  Christ  is  a  very  real  process  and 
a  most  profitable  and  essential  activity. 
The  "  imitableness  of  Christ's  character  "  is 
not  a  fiction.  True  greatness  is  neither  un- 
approachable nor  inimitable.  Whether  the 
imitation  be  in  the  older  fashion  as  taught  by 
a  Kempis,  or  in  the  later  manner  as  indicated 
by  Stalker  in  the  Imago  Christie  it  is  a  very 
real  experience. 


294        SENT  FORTH   BY  THE  MASTER 

But  I  am  thinking  to-day  not  of  the  imi- 
tation of  Christ  in  either  of  these  wise  and 
worthy  ways  but  of  that  deeper  and  more 
significant  thing  involved  in  our  living  with 
Him.  We  are  not  thinking  of  the  care- 
ful copying  of  individual  virtues  but  of  such 
living  like  Him,  which  we  learn  by  living 
with  Him,  that  we  ourselves  shall  in  a  deep, 
real  sense  practice  the  incarnation  in  its 
high,  personal,  ethical,  religious,  vital  mean- 
ing. Into  the  metaphysical  mysteries  of  it 
we  are  not  now  to  go.  But  surely  there  is 
present  meaning  for  us  in  the  idea  of  God  in 
a  human  life  ;  a  human  life  possessed  by  and 
lovingly  obedient  and  responsive  to  God ; 
God  inspiring  and  illuminating  a  human 
personality  ;  a  human  personality  so  receiv- 
ing Christ  that  it  also  becomes  a  son  of  God ; 
divine  Fatherhood  forever  begetting  divine 
sons,  constantly  exercising  spiritual  parent- 
age ;  divine  sons  ever  deriving  divine  life 
and  character  from  the  divine  Father ; 
'*  God's  Fatherhood  not  simply  a  fact  that 
has  been,  but  a  process  that  always  is  and 
will  be." 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  295 

"  Christ's  consciousness  was  that  at  every 
moment  God's  thought,  God's  will,  God's 
actual  life  were  being  reproduced  in  Him." 
"What  God's  Fatherhood  meant  for  Christ 
Himself,  it  should  mean  for  us  in  our  measure. 
God  is,  or  wants  to  be,  our  Father  in  the  same 
manner,  even  if  it  be  impossible  in  the  same 
degree,  as  He  was  the  Father  of  the  perfect 
Son.  And  Christ's  thought  of  God  as  His 
Father  went  far  beyond  God  having  sent 
Him,  God  watching  Him  from  heaven,  God 
taking  a  living  interest  in  Him.  It  included 
all  these  things,  of  course,  and  yet  tran- 
scended them  all  "  (Clark,  The  Philosophy  of 
Christian  Experience). 

We  can  understand  the  incarnation  only 
by  practicing  it-  We  can  learn  by  practice 
or  experience  what  it  means  to  put  the 
highest  at  the  service  of  the  lowest,  the  best 
at  the  service  of  the  worst ;  truth  at  the 
service  of  ignorance,  light  into  darkness, 
strength  into  weakness,  health  into  sickness ; 
all  that  is  good  into  all  that  is  bad,  all  that 
is  divine  under  the  weight  of  all  that  is 
human,  in  order  that  the  low  may  be  lifted ; 


296        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

the  worst  made  like  the  best,  ignorance  re- 
moved, darkness  banished,  sickness  cured, 
badness  transformed  the  human  Hfted  and 
restored  to  God's  image.  Tlie  incarnation 
is  an  opaque  mystery  to  all  who  walk  in 
selfishness ;  it  is  radiant  with  light  to  those 
who  live  with  Christ  and  live  like  Him. 
The  atonement  is  a  blind  perplexity  to  those 
who  have  carried  no  cross,  who  have  not  put 
themselves  into  the  crush  of  reconciliation. 
To  those  who  have  practiced  the  atonement 
the  work  of  Christ  is  like  an  open  way. 
This  is  the  new  imitation  of  Christ,  not  the 
copying  of  particular  and  choice  virtues, 
selecting  those  that  appeal  to  our  tastes,  but 
the  heroic  and  perfect  following  of  Christ  in 
speech  and  life  and  work  so  that  we  shall 
"  practice  the  presence  of  the  holy  and  aton- 
ing life." 

Still  there  remains  a  word.  I  said  a  mo- 
ment ago  that  Jesus  and  Socrates  had  often 
been  compared.  One  of  those  comparisons 
relates  to  the  two  as  teachers.  That  con- 
cerns us  especially  in  these  studies.  ^^  has 
been  said  of  Socrates  that  he  had  great  \ow^ 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  297 

for  the  truth,  great  love  for  his  pupils  and 
extraordinary  ability  to  communicate  his 
truth  to  his  pupils.  It  has  been  thought  that 
the  resemblance  between  Socrates  and  Jesus 
is  thus  very  perfect.  These  sentences  are  all 
true  as  applied  to  Jesus.  He  had  great  love 
for  the  truth.  No  one  else  ever  knew  so  well 
what  truth  would  do.  No  one  else  ever  saw 
so  clearly  its  personal  quality  or  its  personal 
value.  He  had  great  love  for  His  pupils. 
Having  loved  them  He  loved  them  to  the 
end.  Nothing  else  like  it  has  been  seen. 
He  had  surpassing  power  to  impart  and 
communicate.  He  is  the  model  teacher  of 
the  ages.  Those  words  about  Socrates  do 
all  apply  to  Jesus  even  more  than  to  Socrates 
himself.  But  these  words  do  not  fully  de- 
scribe our  Master.  Socrates  could  do  these 
three  things.  Jesus  could  also  do  them. 
There  Socrates'  powder  ends.  There  Jesus' 
power  does  not  end.  Socrates'  pupils  could 
do  their  best  to  imitate  him.  He  could  do 
nothing  to  help  them.  Jesus*  pupils  can  strive 
to  be  like  Him.  But  He  is  not  helpless  in 
presence  of  their  high  endeavour.     He  im- 


298        SENT   FORTH    BY   THE   MASTER 

parts  Himself  to  them.  He  gives  Himself  to 
them.  He  lives  in  them.  They  put  Him  on 
as  a  garment.  He  is  formed  in  them.  They 
are  transformed  into  the  same  image.  Jesus 
is  not  merely  a  fine  example.  He  is  a  per- 
sonal power.  Just  before  poor  Cranmer's 
martyrdom  he  was  asked  why  he  believed  as 
he  did.  He  replied :  "  I  have  preached  many 
times  upon  my  belief  in  Christ,  but  just  now 
I  have  only  one  reason,  which  is  sufficient : 
He  is  in  my  heart.  I  have  Christ  within 
me." 

Recall  again  two  most  thrilling  passages. 
The  last  night  before  the  Master's  crucifixion 
has  come.  The  atmosphere  of  that  night  is 
so  intense  and  vibrant  with  meaning  that 
men  can  hardly  bear  to  live  in  it  even  now 
after  the  centuries.  The  Master  has  spoken 
to  the  disciples.  He  now  speaks  to  God : 
**  I  have  finished  the  work.  I  have  mani- 
fested Thy  name ;  I  have  given  unto  them 
the  words  Thou  gavest  Me»  They  have  re- 
ceived them.  I  pray  for  these  whom  Thou 
hast  given  Me.  As  Thou  hast  sent  Me  even 
so  have  I  sent  them."     Then  the  walls  of  the 


\ 
WITH   A   PERSONALITY  299 

centuries  fell  down.  Then  the  barriers  of 
race  and  nations  were  melted.  Then  the 
men  of  Tennessee  and  of  Illinois  were  caught 
up  into  our  Master's  prayer.  Then  the 
Upper  Room  was  opened  to  us  as  He  went 
on  : 

"  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for 
them  also  that  believe  on  Me  through  their 
word  ;  that  they  may  all  be  one ;  even  as 
Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that 
they  also  may  be  in  us :  that  the  world  may 
believe  that  Thou  didst  send  Me.  And  the 
glory  which  Thou  hast  given  Me  I  have 
given  unto  them  ;  that  they  may  be  one,  even 
as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them,  and  Thou  in  Me, 
that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one ;  that 
the  world  may  know  that  Thou  didst  send 
Me,  and  lovedst  them,  even  as  Thou  lovedst 
Me.  .  .  .  And  I  made  known  unto  them 
Thy  name,  and  will  make  it  known  ;  that  the 
love  wherewith  Thou  lovedst  Me  may  be  in 
them,  and  I  in  them  "  (John  xvii.  20-23,  26). 

Then  open  to  that  other  passage  which 
describes  the  healing  of  the  lame  man  and 
recounts  the  teaching  in  connection  with  it — 


300        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

the  beautiful  deed  and  the  beautiful  word. 
The  incident  seems  to  gather  up  in  itself 
almost  perfectly  all  that  we  have  been  trying 
to  say.  Here  were  these  men  who  had 
learned  the  Master's  truth,  seen  the  Master's 
activities,  and  became  acquainted  with  the 
Master  Himself,  themselves  doing  what  He 
would  have  done,  speaking  the  truth  as  they 
had  learned  it,  and  revealing  Him  in  their 
speech,  their  deeds  and  themselves. 

"  When  the  Council  saw  how  boldly  Peter 
and  John  spoke,  and  found  that  they  were 
uneducated  men  of  humble  station,  they  were 
surprised,  and  realized  that  they  had  been 
companions  of  Jesus"  (Acts  iv.  13). 

He  chose  certain  to  be  with  Him.  He  sent 
them  forth  and  men  realized  from  what  they 
said  and  did  and  were  that  they  had  been 
with  Him. 

Here  our  study  together  must  end.  As 
well  as  I  can  do  it  my  task  is  done.  Under 
the  figure  of  a  school  I  have  been  trying  to 
interpret  to  the  men  of  at  least  two  great 
churches  as  to  myself  the  essence  of  that 
ministry  which  I  am  hoping  and  longing  to 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  30I 

see  before  the  end  of  the  day  comes.  The 
figure  of  the  school  breaks  down  at  last. 
We  are  never  dismissed  from  the  School  of 
Christ.  We  are  sent  forth  but  never  alone. 
From  the  Master  we  are  always  receiving 
truth.  He  is  ever  sharing  our  activities. 
From  His  perpetual  presence  with  us  we 
evermore  receive  our  life.  Even  as  I  was 
writing  this  final  study  a  teacher,  gready  be- 
loved, slipped  out  of  our  sight.  There  are 
many  thousands  who  will  love  truth  more 
dearly  and  see  truth  more  clearly  for  having 
known  Borden  Parker  Bowne.  He  has  gone, 
leaving  his  teaching  and  his  influence,  and 
the  memory  of  his  life.  The  great  Master 
remains.  He  is  still  in  His  teaching,  still 
working  out  His  purpose  for  men  and  the 
world,  still  dwelling  in  and  with  His  own. 
But  the  breaking  down  of  the  figure  is  the 
strength  and  joy  of  the  School  of  Christ. 
For  the  truth  is  a  living  truth,  the  program  a 
vital  program,  and  the  Master  Himself  a  liv- 
ing force,  personal  and  present  in  His  truth, 
in  His  program  and  in  those  who  own  Him 
as  Master  and  Lord. 


302        SENT   FORTH   BY   THE   MASTER 

And  I  cannot  doubt  the  power  or  the  joy 
of  such  a  ministry  to-day  and  always,  here 
and  everywhere.  Nor  is  there  question  of  its 
need. 

The  world  grows  weary,  but  such  a  minis- 
try renews  its  strength  forever.  The  dust 
of  the  day  falls  upon  modern  life,  but  such  a 
ministry  is  young  with  the  life  eternal.  That 
we  and  all  others  may  so  enter  the  School  of 
Christ,  that  we  shall  hear  what  He  says,  see 
what  He  does  and  learn  what  He  is ;  and  be 
so  sent  forth  by  Him  that  we  shall  set  men 
free  by  the  truth  which  is  in  Him,  that  we 
shall  do  life's  greater  works,  and  show  forth 
the  life  hid  with  Christ,  is  my  constant 
prayer. 

One  of  the  old  English  Homilies  runs  as 
follows : 

"  Therefore,  dearly  beloved,  let  us  not  for- 
get this  exceeding  love  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour.  Let  us  confess  Him  with  our 
mouths,  praise  Him  with  our  tongues,  be- 
lieve on  Him  with  our  hearts,  and  glorify 
Him  with  our  good  works.  Christ  is  the 
Light ;  let  us  reveal  the  Light.     Christ  is  the 


WITH   A   PERSONALITY  303 

Truth  ;  let  us  believe  the  Truth.  Christ  is 
the  Way ;  let  us  follow  the  Way.  And  be- 
cause He  is  our  only  Master,  our  only 
Teacher,  our  only  Shepherd  and  Chief  Cap- 
tain, let  us  become  His  scholars,  His  soldiers, 
His  sheep.  His  servants.  .  .  .  Let  us  re- 
ceive Christ  not  for  a  time,  but  forever ;  let 
us  believe  His  word  not  for  a  time,  but  for- 
ever ;  let  us  become  His  servants  not  for  a 
time,  but  forever,  considering  that  He  hath 
redeemed  us  not  for  a  time,  but  forever,  and 
will  receive  us  into  His  heavenly  kingdom, 
then,  to  reign  with  Him,  not  for  a  time,  but 
forever." 


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